“I thought you said this would be a piece of cake Maxwell.” Wufei glowered at him as they cautiously continued walking down the hall.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one that started yelling at them.”

Their first attempt at getting in wasn’t the success they had hoped for. The secretary at the front desk had said something that made Wufei mad, he started yelling at her, she called security and he shouted at them as well. They had shoved past the guards and now found themselves wandering through the halls trying to find what they had been sent there for.

Trowa grabbed a doorknob to one of the many rooms. “This is the one,” he stated bluntly.

Only the name distinguished this door from the others; written in small gold letters was the same name that they had found that morning.

Inside the person sitting at the computer jumped slightly at the sound of someone turning the doorknob. She typed in a few commands and leapt to her feet ready to fend off whoever it might be. The door flew open; the three men looked at her, but only one looked surprised. Trowa, the first to recover, stepped into the room trying to get near the girl. The other two boys came into the room, shutting the door behind them. She took advantage of their initial shock and jumped up into the air ducts, Trowa at her heels.

“Great! What was that?” Duo blurted out as he pushed a chair up against the door.

Wufei examined the computer and quickly found what she had been doing there, “We have to go after her.”

“What, you think that she might be the big bad leader of this infamous group or do you just like to crawl through ducts?”

Wufei glared at Duo, “Like I want to follow your butt though the ducts.”

“The guards are coming,” Trowa announced still standing under the hole she disappeared through, “and we do need to find her. She may be the only way out of here now.”

Duo and Wufei exchanged evil looks as the sound of the guards trying to bust down the door filled their ears.

A head and shoulders popped through the opening in the ceiling, brown hair hung from the upside-down head. All three turned to face it; Barton looking straight up.

“Hey handsome, can I have my shoe back?” She held out her hand and waited.

Trowa held up the mentioned object. He had grabbed at her when she jumped but her shoe was all he had obtained; she took it and started to pull herself back in.

“Who are you?” Wufei questioned with a hash voice.

Duo just looked dumbfounded, jaw gaping.

She looked at each of them in turn and said “You better hurry, it won’t take them long to knock down the door,” with that she vanished from sight as quickly as she had appeared.

Without waiting for his two companions to comment on what had happened Trowa leapt up and pulled himself into the air ducts; Wufei copied his actions and then Duo. The girl was gone but Barton saw some movement and followed it. On hands and knees the three pilots followed the quick movements of the girl, sometimes just barely catching sight of the black figure as she turned.

They made it out of the labyrinth of crawl space, jumping from the small opening to the ground. Quickly Wufei surveyed the area for sight of the girl, he saw her turn around a corner. Duo turned on the comm. link and tried to contact Lady Une.

“Yes, Duo, what is happening?” Lady Une’s voice came in clear over their connection.

“We ran into some unexpected difficulties,” he answered as they pursued the girl.

“Where are you?” she asked in a calm tone, begging for him to be direct.

“We found the office, but he wasn’t there,” Duo started his explanation. “There was a girl in the room, we are following her now.” He continued giving her street names and a brief description of where they were.

“Duo, you or Trowa continue following her. Be careful and don’t let her escape, we may need her help. I’m sending Wind, he might be able to help you persuade her,” she cut off the communication, then came back, “Send Wufei back; only one of you needs to be there. We don’t want to frighten her.”

“Roger,” Duo put the device away and relayed Lady Une’s message to the others.

Wufei grumbled something the others couldn’t understand and Duo agreed that Trowa could return with Wufei while he continued tracking the girl.

When they arrived back at the base Wufei briefed Lady Une on what had happened.

Une held out a paper; “This was received while you were out.”

Wufei read it and handed it to Trowa, “So I was right; she is mouse.”

“Yes, I too believe she is the one who sent the messages,” Une agreed with Wufei’s assumption. “That’s why I sent Zechs to help Duo.”

Lady Une hid the look of knowledge that threatened to show in her face, she knew for a fact that this girl was indeed the one they called mouse, the same person who had sent all the previous messages.

They sat and waited for Maxwell and Merquise to return. A half-hour passed then an hour and then another hour. Noin started to pace. Wufei became cross; he started thinking that maybe he should have never let Duo go after a girl. Lady Une sat in her office reading through the papers containing what they had found so far; she drummed her fingers on the desk and began to worry that they might lose this lead again. They had almost found the girl one time once before but she had evaded them.

A determined voice could be heard from the hallway leading to the lobby. The voice was feminine and no other voices could be heard; she was loud and demanding but not screaming.

Duo opened the door and everyone in the room stood up. He walked in slowly, trying to hide a limp, the right side of his face was red and throbbing but a grin still adorned his countenance. Zechs stepped in behind him with the offender in tow, both had dirt stains on their clothes. Her hands were cuffed in front of her and he was pulling her by the forearm. She firmly stated “Let me go” one last time and kicked the man in the leg; he grimaced and did as she ordered.

Lady Une came out of her office and analyzed the scene before her, “Please remove the handcuffs.”

Preventer Wind did as he was asked, approaching the girl carefully and giving Lady Une a wary look.

“Are you the one who sent the information?” Une looked the younger lady squarely in the eye.

She looked back with an emotionless glare and answered. “Yes.”

“What is your name?”

The young woman didn’t answer. Everyone present stared at the two ladies. The girl fixed her brown eyes on the head of the Preventers. She stood with her back straight her arms at her side, like a soldier stands at attention. Wufei walked to her side; “She asked you a question.”

The girl being questioned passed a side-glance at him without moving her head; “Mouse,” she said in the same immovable tone as before.

“Talkative isn’t she?” Duo muttered under his breath to no one in particular.

“Who is the leader?” Une continued with her questioning.

Mouse didn’t answer; both women knew the other had the answer to that question. Une had known for weeks; what they both wanted was the knowledge of where to find him. They glared at each other as everyone continued to watch. With the thumb of her right hand Mouse made a small circular motion rubbing the tips of her first two fingers. The action was slight and went unnoticed.

Une glanced at the crowd of people in the room, they looked like tigers ready to pounce on their pray, “Come into my office,” she turned her back to the group and walked though the door.

Mouse followed, walking past the Lady farther into the next room; they heard her say “Sit down,” then Une shut the door.

“Good job Maxwell,” Wufei spat at Duo. “You were supposed to bring her back unharmed.”

“She’s not hurt.”

“Hey guys, stop it,” Noin tried to make peace between them. “What exactly happened anyway?”

Duo turned to her and grinned, he ran his fingers through his brown main from his forehead to where his braid started, he left his hand there and said, “I guess I startled her.”

Zechs looked at him and lifted an eyebrow, “She knew you were there.”

“That girl did that?” Trowa asked as he pointed to the door of Lady Une’s office then at Duo’s face.

“Yes,” the braided man turned his face from everyone and spoke in a low voice.

“Maxwell was defeated by a mouse,” Wufei said with an amused air, taking the rare moment to get in a low blow.

“She’s a ferocious rodent,” Zechs added.

Noin smiled. “So, what happened?”

The former god of death diverted his gaze, avoiding eye contact.

Noin turned to Zechs; he smiled and supplied the information she wanted, “We followed her for some time then Duo approached her from behind, he grabbed her shoulder to stop her. She turned around and punched him.”

“It was a lucky punch,” Duo blurted out in defense. “She probably couldn’t do it again.”

“Go on,” Wufei said, urging Zechs to complete his tale.

“She kicked his legs out from under him and ran off.”

“She caught me off guard,” Duo interrupted again.

“What did you do?” Noin turned and asked the blond.

“He tackled her,” Duo answered.

Noin looked shocked “Zechs!”

“You tackled a girl?” Wufei asked.

Even Trowa was shocked, though it didn’t show; Merquise usually treated all women with great respect.

“I only caught her around the waist, I didn’t knock her down,” Zechs responded, shying away from Preventer Fire.

“She slipped from his grasp though and he had to handcuff her to keep her from getting away.” Duo finished telling what happened and added, “How’s your leg?”

Merquise glanced at the ceiling.

Noin glared at him, her arms folded across her chest as she asked, “What about your leg?”

“She kicked his legs every time someone wasn’t looking,” Duo answered then remembering the car ride back to the base said, “She never screamed, she only tried to pull away, and demanded that Zechs let her go.”

Preventer Wind left the room and returned to his bunk. Noin followed and sat on the bed next to him. Zechs examined his leg; bruises were already starting to form. At one point he had switched the side of his body that he was dragging the girl on, that leg had rather large bruises too. Noin left and returned shortly with some ice.

Meanwhile in the lobby the boys sat in silence; Mouse and Lady Une were still in the office. Voices could be heard coming from the room. Wufei and Duo inched closer to the door so they could listen in on what was said. Trowa was still sitting on the couch, silently watching. The two voices continued; it was hard to separate one from the other and the words weren’t clear. One voice became louder; the other answered in the same tone as before. Lady Une’s voice was clearly heard. Une, who had become an extremely calm woman, was practically yelling, but neither man could understand what she said. The voices ceased to make noise and the boys returned to their previous positions.

Lady Une opened the door and Mouse came out wearing the same emotionless expression as before. Whatever was said behind the closed door seemed to have no effect on her.

The head of the Preventers said, “Seventeen hundred hours, and please come back on your own. You need protection.”

Mouse headed toward the door without responding; Duo grabbed her arm and turned her to face him, “So you’re Mouse.”

“Squeak, squeak,” she dryly said, glaring at him.

“You should listen to the Lady,” Duo said, he wondered how her brown eyes could look so cold, “your life is in danger.”

“I can take care of myself,” Mouse made a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. “He won’t kill me.” She tilted her head and smirked, “You should put ice on that.” She gently brushed the side of his face with the tips of her fingernails.

“I’m serious,” he said as he noticed the chipping silver polish on her nails.

“Me too.” She pulled her arm free and left.

“Someone needs to follow her,” Lady Une ordered then returned to her office.

Wufei turned to Duo, “Maxwell why don’t you go since you seem so concerned about her.”

“No way--it’s someone else’s turn.” He walked to the kitchen to get some ice to put on his face.

Trowa walked past Chang to the door, he called over his shoulder, “I’ll do it.”

He left the building and rapidly spotted her a couple yards off, her pace was quick but easy to follow. He followed her for several city blocks; she didn’t seem to notice him. Mouse stopped at a public phone; she leaned against the wall, looked around, and began to talk.

Trowa heard her say, “I didn’t get it,” she looked a little disappointed, “I was interrupted,” she listened to the other end for a while.

“What did you do--call them and ask?” She laughed and added, “That’s it you’re just real good at guessing games.”

When she glanced in Trowa’s general direction saying, “Yes,” he figured she was talking about him.

“I’m not going,” Mouse answered the other end defiantly and listened to the response. “NO!” she paused, “I wo…” she didn’t finish her word. “But…” again the person cut her words off.

She stuck her tongue out at the phone knowing the person on the other end couldn’t see her. Mouse sighed and said “An hour. Same place as usual. Bye.” She hung up and started to walk away; she passed just inches from Trowa’s hiding spot.

Barton stepped in to the kitchen where Maxwell and Chang were eating and arguing, Duo still holding an ice pack to his face. Nearly an hour had passed since he left; he poured himself a cold drink and sat down.

“Where’s the girl?”

“I lost her,” Trowa answered Wufei’s question.

Duo laughed. “So she’s a ferocious rodent who lives up to her name,” he used Zechs description of the brunette.

“She’ll come back,” Trowa said, hoping that he had translated what he heard of the phone conversation correctly.

The allotted time for Mouse to return passed. Only Wufei and Noin seemed to be anxious about it. The young woman walked through the door; she carried a large duffel bag hanging at her hip with the strap crossing over her chest and a small backpack clutched in her arms. Her eyes still held a defiant look but she had changed the solid black outfit for one with a more feminine style.

Lady Une came out of her office, “Glad to see you back.”

She turned and called to the three boys; they all followed her to the car waiting in the street below. They drove in silence to the shuttle docks, everyone but Trowa wondering why Mouse had come back. Lady Une watched them board a commercial flight to Earth. No one questioned what was happening.

Mouse, still clutching the small cream-colored crocheted bag, her legs crossed at the ankles and tucked under her seat, continued to stare through the window.

Trowa, sitting in the seat facing her, watched her reflection in the glass the view from the colony on the other side of the window marring her features. Her eyes had lost their brave appearance. He looked at the bag in her lap, the corners of whatever was inside were slightly visible and different colors could be seen through the holes. He thought about the phone call and asked her, “Do you have a family on the colony?”

She looked at him then back out the window. “I did,” she turned to face him, “Do you have any family?”

He studied her appearance for a while and Duo answered the question, “He has a sister.”

Mouse smiled. “You must love her very much. I can tell.”

Trowa told her, “Only a person who loves someone else can see that in others.”

The smile vanished and Mouse turned her head to look out the window again, “Loved, past tense.”