Knowing he only had a brief opportunity to say what he wanted Duo speedily got to the point, “I think what you doing is…” He faltered when she turned to meet his gaze, “It’s not fair.”

“It’s a conspiracy, Duo,” she grinned. “Everyone is plotting to make life unfair.”

Mouse lifted the lid off a box sitting on a low table near the bed, the American placed his hand gently on hers, stopping her from moving them any farther. He pulled the strap off her shoulder and allowed the duffel to fall to the floor, landing at her feet with a thump.

“I have to leave.” With a sigh she added, “I shouldn’t have stayed here so long.”

He thought about her words, a little over a week did seem long. “There was nowhere else for you to go and no one is making you leave now.”

They both knew there were other safe-houses that Lady Une had arranged for the girl.

Duo sat down on her bed and picked up the stuffed animal that was lying next to the girl’s box. The soft gray fur was worn and matted, its black bead eyes were chipped, and the velvety pink lining in its ears was stained; he held it in his open hands examining the toy mouse.

“Were you planning on saying good-bye to the others?” Duo asked his eyes still fixed on the doll.

“No.” Mouse had planned to go without having to say farewell. She had hoped to leave before he would be awake, but somehow Duo knew.

“What about Quatre, are you going to tell him?”

“No, I don’t want him to know,” she said.

“You’re going to face him?” the braided boy asked, unwilling to say the man’s name. It was only a guess; an assumption based not on the girl’s actions but on Wufei’s, a realization that became more evident by what she had just said.

She took the stuffed mouse from him, set it in the box, laid the lid on top, and slid the package into the small cream-colored bag that had been lying under it.

He took her silence as an affirmative answer; “You can’t do that, Lady Une assigned us to protect you.”

“I have already contacted Lady Une.”

“It’s too dangerous. You shouldn’t go by yourself.” Duo grabbed the duffel bag’s strap, flinging it over his shoulder and taking a few steps toward the door he added, “You’re not going.”

“I won’t be alone. Wufei is coming with me.” She hoped the information would convince him to let her leave. “Give me my bag.”

“No.” He looked at her defiantly, keeping the duffel away from her.

“I’m going,” she walked around him saying, “With or without the bag,” as she stepped out the open door.

Exasperated, he called after her, “That’s it--you’re just leaving. It doesn’t matter to you.”

The brunette turned on her heels to face him when she made her response, “What is ‘it’?”

Duo didn’t know how to answer, that wasn’t the reaction he expected.

“It’s what I’ve always done,” Mouse closed her brown eyes, “Sometimes I feel it’s the only thing I do and every time I leave something behind, much more than you can imagine, Duo.”

“Would you leave that?” He pointed to the crocheted bag she carried; the same bag she was clutching when she walked into the Preventer’s temporary base.

“Many times it was all I could bring with me and yes I have left it behind,” she turned around and started to walk down the hall. “But I always kept it where I could come back and get it.”

“You would come back for it? You’ve had to leave it several times.” It really didn’t make sense to him that she would go through the trouble of returning to a hiding space for the box or the bag.

“As children we never stayed in one place very long. My grandmother made the bags and together with my mother we made the boxes. We filled them with things that had a special meaning to us.” Mouse turned her head to look at Duo who was walking beside her, “Most of the time it is all I have, it’s everything I treasure, the only thing I was allowed to keep.”

“So what happens after this?”

“You go back to your lives: Trowa to his sister, Wufei his job, Relena with Heero, and you can go home to Hilde.” She thought hard, trying to remember if she got it all correct, if she used the right name for the woman Duo had talked about that she had never met.

“What about you?”

Mouse abruptly stopped when she saw Quatre standing at the bottom of the stairs. She swallowed the lump growing in her throat and slowly walked down. The Chinese Preventer was behind him resting against the wall, arms folded, ebony eyes closed. At first she felt relieved that the blond didn’t speak; she was glad he didn’t ask her anything, but the look in his blue eyes was something she had never faced before.

Trowa opened the door and announced, “Are you ready Wufei—Mouse?”

They simultaneously answered, “Yes.”

“Mouse, I think I should come too,” Quatre tried to smile when he made this offer, but he knew she would refuse.

“No,” she bowed her head as she walked past him; “You have already done so much.”

They walked out, Quatre standing next to the brunette, lingering in their last moments together.

“Why is Maxwell still holding your bag?” Wufei asked Mouse after Trowa had climbed into the back seat of the car.

Mouse smiled. “He’s holding it ransom.” Turning to Duo she grinned wider, “I think he wants to keep it.”

Wufei glared at him; Duo gave him the duffel and sheepishly said, “I was just carrying it down for her.”

Preventer Chang tossed the bag in the trunk and mumbled under his breath.

“Good-bye and I’m thankful for everything you’ve done for me,” the brunette stated, looking at the blond Arabian over the car door he held open for her.

“I’m coming too.” Duo pulled at the handle of the front passenger side.

The door quickly locked and once again Wufei and Mouse made a simultaneous answer, both blurting out, “No!”

“Good-bye Duo.”

“I’ll miss you, Mouse,” Quatre said as she sat in the car.

Pulling her feet in behind her, Mouse whispered, “Forget me.”

He was about to protest, to say how it would be impossible to do, even though he knew she was earnest in her request, but Wufei slid into the car, sitting next to Mouse and pulling the door shut behind him. The car pulled out of the driveway and through the gates before Quatre turned to go in.

“Try not to think about me, and please forgive me,” Mouse thought in silence, never looking back as the car continued to drive. “Knowing what will happen I can not allow you to come. I am truly sorry Quatre. You were so kind.”

Their ride seemed long, in the car no one talked, everyone too lost in their own thoughts to say anything. On both sides of the girl the former gundam pilots looked out the windows, the passing view only a blur in their vision. The beauty of that golden morning, the glimmer of the rising sun sparkling off the coast as they sped down the paved roads had no effect on the three young people sitting in the back. Mouse stared at the floor, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do, trying to put aside her feelings for what she left behind.

The tinted window separating the back from the front slowly rolled down at the driver’s command; the others didn’t pay attention to the pair of cool Prussian blue eyes watching them in the rearview mirror. He had hope to meet the brown eyes of the girl, to see what was in them, in his own way to read them and judge her actions and motive, but her head remained bowed, her face hidden in the shadows created by the hair falling down on her cheeks.

Wufei caught a glimpse of the pair of eyes watching them; he looked to see if Mouse had noticed. His watched her for a little longer, thinking about everything that had happened.

“You still think you’re going back.”

“Eventually.”

“You shouldn’t be out here.”

“Why?” She stood to face him, “Are you afraid someone might see me? I’m not.”

“You’re not thinking.” Wufei glared her.

“I know what I have to do: I will return to space.” Mouse took off her sunglasses. “I know where he is.”

He looked at her, visibly shocked, and angry at what she was suggesting.

“Can you contact Lady Une and tell her what I have decided?” Her voice was a plea.

“No.” Wufei gave her a stern look. “It is not your responsibility; the Preventers will take care of him. You do not need to put your life at risk.”

“Do you think you are sparing me from the damage he can do?” her tone became harsh, “With my help they can bring an end sooner; I can get them in without a fight. Please Wufei; I will be acting only as a key.”

“You are staying here.” Wufei turned to leave, figuring he had put an end to the discussion.

“Wufei Chang,” she yelled at his back, flinging her arms down to her side. “I will go, If you do not contact Lady Une, I will. If I have to steal a shuttle to get there, I’ll do it.”

“He made a threat on your life. Doesn’t that worry you?” The Chinese man turned to face her.

“He is not after my life.”

“What does he want?”

“Control, power, destruction, chaos. The collapse of the Preventers, the lives of everyone connected with the former OZ.”

“What does he want with you?” he questioned in a surprisingly gentle voice. “You alone are not capable of helping him do that.”

“The gundam pilots.” She waited for his reaction and continued, “He wants your deaths; you, Quatre, Duo, Heero and Trowa. In his mind you failed the mission and he knows I am capable of finding the last remaining files on your identification.”

“I will go with you.” He noticed Mouse was about to open her mouth. “Don’t argue and don’t tell anyone else.”

“I wish you wouldn’t; there are others who could offer their protection. You understand that if you or any of the others come and this fails he will have what he wants. As gundam pilots you and the others have already sacrificed so much.”

In that conversation she had revealed many things but had still managed to disclose nothing, Mouse still hadn’t told anyone how she knew they were gundam pilots. Since the first day she had let them believe it was only an assumption when she had said that Heero was a pilot. Then she confirmed that she had known, but did she know the entire time?

The car rolled to a stop at the shuttle bay where their transport to the L1 colonies lay waiting, the sun reflecting off the metallic finishing. No people could be seen; the driver rolled up the tinted window, hiding from their view once again.

Wufei opened the door and said, “I’ll check the surrounding perimeter.”

“What happens after this?” Trowa asked Mouse after the door was shut.

“I disappear.”

“You don’t need to vanish.” He turned his emerald eyes to face her. “After this there will be no reason for you to hide.”

“When this is finished there will be no reason for me to stay.”

Trowa could find no voice to answer her and they sat in silence until the driver opened the door; his face hidden in the shadows of the brim on his hat, dark brown tuffs of hair sticking out the sides and back. Wufei gave them the okay to get out and Trowa went to get the girl’s bag from the trunk.

As the driver took her hand to helped Mouse out of the car he flatly asked, “Do you know what you are doing?”

“What I do is of no concern to you, Heero.” She pulled her hand from his with a quick jerk. “I am doing the only thing I know, but do your friends know what they are doing?”

“I do not know if they do, but I know and that will have to be enough.”

“I don’t want you to come,” she glanced at Trowa, “I am already putting to many people in danger.”

“It is my decision--not yours.”

They boarded the shuttle after one last check of the grounds; neither of the boys questioned Heero’s presence.

The door slid shut with a whooshing sound as soon as everyone had stepped aboard; they tried to manually open it but failed. Heero pulled out his gun and slowly advanced toward the front, making his way to the cockpit. The speakers buzzed for a few seconds preceding an announcement.

“This is your pilot Duo Maxwell speaking.” They heard a little laugh. “Sit down, buckle up and enjoy your flight.”

Mouse mumbled, “Do any of you ever listen?”

Heero tucked his gun away and sat down, “You should try listening, Mouse. He said, ‘sit down’.”

She sighed and did as she was told.

Wufei stormed the cockpit and found Duo already preparing for launch. He scowled at the braided man, thinking about what he told Mouse the night of the State Dinner.

The brunette walked into the dimly lit room where he was observing the others in the hall.

“Wufei, are you in here?” Her voice was hushed and she squinted as her eyes adjusted to the low light.

“Hn.”

She approached him; he watched her dignified gate, the dress ending a few inches above her knees, exposing most of her long slender legs.

“Has anything new happened?’

“Lady Une has the blue prints to the building. They are going over the security system, trying to find the best way to enter.”

Mouse looked at Wufei, “There’s something else isn’t there?”

“She asked that Trowa help on the mission as well. We leave at sun up tomorrow.”

“You already asked him?” she watched as he nodded his head, “He understands the risk and that I’m not coming back?”

“Trowa has never been afraid of the danger.”

“I wish I didn’t have to drag him or you into this.”

He was slightly surprised at her concern for him. They had never really gotten along, their arguments becoming more heated than the ones he frequently had with Duo.

“We do this of our own free choice,” he offered the only words of comfort he could think of. “No one else will know. They will stay here.”

They heard Duo’s voice and she smiled at what he said.

“I shouldn’t be going tonight; it’s not fair to him.” She turned her back to the hall. “It’s cruel to go with him tonight, to watch him smile, to dress up and parade around, knowing that tomorrow I have to vanish.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

She had turned around and he noticed her eyes were on the blond man.

“I don’t know.” She watched as Heero slipped his arm around Relena.

“They’re waiting for you,” he stared into her eyes and added in a whisper as she left the room, “Go enjoy your night, don’t think of tomorrow. Only now exists, now and nothing else.”

“Hey, Wufei,” Duo beamed. “Takeoffs can be pretty rough on you when you’re not fastened in.”

“You are a crazy fool.”

“Sorry no time for compliments—sit.”

Wufei returned to the back and sat with the others. He avoided eye contact with Mouse; she seemed a little perturbed that everyone was joining her in the journey back to space. It made things more difficult than she would have liked.

After leaving the atmosphere, Trowa and Wufei started a game of chess.

The Japanese boy watched the girl, occasionally asking a question to which she never responded. With the knowledge of what she had given him, the computer files mostly on the man Fujihara, Heero had found more documents about her. He had every fact committed to memory: where she spent her childhood, the dates of birth and death for many of her family members, every school she had attended. Heero recalled Mouse’s math scores were considerably higher than grammar; a smirk curled his lips, he knew more about her than he cared to remember about himself. All that information was found easily enough with the additional information of her name, most of it impersonal data and medical records, but something was missing, several years of her life were blocked out, lost to any form of recovery. It began in the year when she would have been eight, A.C. 188, and from then on only very little could be traced, one or two pieces from her teens; not even a school record could be found. It was like she had disappeared. What puzzled him even more was what Mouse had given him in replacement for the year when it started, a military report and another list of statistics seemingly unrelated to anything else.

“What happened in those years?”

“What happened in your childhood, Heero Yuy?”

He looked away, the question bringing up memories he didn’t want to address.

She forced herself to stare straight into his eyes, “See, Heero, just as you do not openly share your past, I too have memories I keep to myself.” Mouse turned from him. “You will find out soon enough.”

No more questions were asked, no further discussions made. Mouse fell asleep or at least pretended to sleep, Heero pulled out the lieutenant rank badge she had given him; he glanced at the girl.

“Relena,” he whispered as his mind drifted to the night before.

She laughed. “I’m glad Suki and I became friends.”

GO TO LIVING LEGACY CHAPTER 8!

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