EPILOGUE!

Okay, I am not sure if this will be on in time, but mE thanks for your reviews ... they made me happy to come home and see them on my comp ... Thanks! Do you have an account? Any chance? Thank you soo much!

Emily: staring dazed and confused at nothing

Hisasuke: Umm . . . Emily?

Emily: Why didn't anyone tell me?!

Hisasuke: Tell you what?

Emily: . . . about the credits of the GW dvds . . . So much . . . ::shiver:: of HER! ::Hisasuke pats shoulder comfortingly::

Umm . . . hehe sorry about the wait, I am not exactly sure when this will get up cause my computer is being fickle right now, but hopefully tonight ... Umm thanks Mich for yelling at me and Foxfire for listening to me rant . . . hehe and all my lovelie reviewers. I really have no valid excuse for the ... lateness of this epilogue . . .

It didn't get up 'tonight' Stupid computer didn't let me get on ff.net but I finished it last night!

DISCLAIMER!!: I have not gained ownership of GW over the past, what was it? month since I last updated. Serei was graciously loaned to me by Ryoko Onee. Wasn't that nice? I thought so.

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"ahem . . ."

The slender, calloused hand that Quatre was holding began to go cold, Quatre gripped it tighter. It wasn't supposed to end this way, not with so much pain, not for such a little thing. He couldn't cry, not yet, something within him hadn't snapped yet. He searched

within himself, hoping for some sensation indicating Duo's presence. There was none, but he was determined to find any trace of his braided friend and bring it back. He lost awareness of the world around him as he immersed himself in the cold darkness of his mind. He felt something familiar surrounding him, something warm and cheerful, piercing the cold, pushing him away, back into reality.

Trowa was next to him, where he lay on the floor, clutching his fingers with one hand and the other wrapped around Quatre's shoulder.

"Quatre!" When Quatre looked up at him confused Trowa sighed in relief, "You need to let him go," Quatre blinked in surprise, he had a deathgrip on Duo's cold, still fingers. Slowly, reluctantly Quatre removed his cramped fingers from Duo's. He stood slowly, allowing his numb legs time to regain there feeling. Heero was still collapsed in the chair, eyes closed, head in hands, while Wufei just stood there, still and silent, thinking. They had been so close to saving him, and yet it seemed that someone out there just didn't want to share pilot 02.

Heero lifted his head and stared blankly at the bed, not really comprehending what he was seeing. He had failed, he hadn't saved Duo, it was his fault that he was dead. Everything, the whole affair. Abruptly, Heero stood and left the room slamming the door behind him.

~*~*~Three Days Later~*~*~

Quatre looked around, they had just finished burying Duo's body, on one of his properties in America. It was small enough as mansions go and in the back was a huge luxurious garden. Duo had loved the garden, often immersing himself in the tree branches, smelling the collection of roses. His favorite was the lisianthus, he had once told him that they represented calmness, and whenever he was near them, he felt peaceful, relaxed. Quatre had them planted over the grave, at a base of a willow tree, ancient and sorrowful. It had a type of strength within it, though not immediately noticeable. About 100 yards away was pond, deep and murky, it was very peaceful. It had a steep bank before gracefully dipping into the water. The surroundings seemed appropriate for the rambunctious Duo. Even though it represented serenity in all appearances, there was a flurry of activity all around, the frogs hopping busily across the lily pads, the fish hunting insects on the surface of the water, birds busily building nests in the trees. No, it suited Duo's needs perfectly.

Heero had refused to come, he had been in his room, on his laptop, once again. He had returned to Duo's room twice when he thought no one was looking (and probably did sneak past them several times, when they weren't.) Quatre could feel his pain, but any attempt to talk to him was brushed off coldly. The hurt he felt now was much different then the pain Quatre had felt the first time. It was harshly accepting pain. As if the pain deserved to be there, and that worried Quatre even more.

Quatre walked inside and sat in the closed up kitchen, an attempt to keep out summers last attempt at survival, staring morosely around him. Trowa walked in, his entire demeanor appeared defeated, unsure and hesitant. He placed his warm hands on Quatre's shoulders, and slowly began massaging them, concentrating on the knots and slowly kneaded away their existence. He was rewarded when Quatre leaned back into him, eyes closed and sighing. After a moment, Quatre stood and allowed Trowa to wrap him in his arms. This was the first time they had touched since that day in the hallway. Quatre buried his face in Trowa's shoulder, being comforted by the warmth he found there. Trowa rubbed his back, while taking his own sense of peace from the blond Arabian. A soft, pleasing breeze swirled up around them, ruffling the hair, and alleviating the stillness of the room, caused by the shut windows.

Quatre jerked upright. The breeze receded, leaving only a memory. Quatre looked around, but all the windows were shut and no doors were open. Trowa's face was puzzled as well, but Quatre was more suspicious. He glanced around as if expecting someone to jump from behind a chair with a mighty palm branch, claiming responsibility. Shivering involuntarily, Quatre leaned into Trowa again, in need of security. Footsteps startled them out of their embrace.

Once again, Wufei interrupted their embrace but this time he didn't look at all uncomfortable. "Don't let me interfere, I'm just getting a sandwich." He busily did just that, while Quatre and Trowa in unspoken agreement left the room together. They settled into the couch, wrapped up in each other, despite the heat. They let themselves rest and both eyes drifted shut. Their rest didn't last long, a loud clunk came from within the kitchen, both too tired to check it out they glanced at the door between rooms. Wufei came out, no sandwich and his eyes were wide, with a slightly glazed look about them. Seeing their stares he muttered something about meditation and stiffly walked to his room.

Quatre woke from his cat nap, a sound seemingly disturbed his slumber. He stood and glanced around, a movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He stood, convinced he had seen it turn the corner. Quatre followed as well as he could, following his senses, he slowly took his gun out and cocked it. Hearing motion around the corner, he readied himself, and turning around the corner, he took an offensive pose, fully prepared to fire.

There was nothing there, not even a whisper of a shadow, nothing. Quatre looked around, suspicious out of habit, though he sensed nothing alarming. He cautiously exited the room, back to the door. As he removed himself from the room he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

~*~*~Somewhere in space~*~*~

Serei and Kari had yet to be briefed about their assignment, and had been confined to their quarters for three and a half days now.

"I feel like we're prisoners here. Sheez, you'd think our employers would treat us better than this!" Kari raged from her bunk. She threw a wadded up sock down and watched in satisfaction as it's unearthly odor sailed through window and landed in the hallway, where it's offensive scent could linger 'til someone else saw fit to move it. A loud snort of disgust was heard from the hallway, as the door was unlocked and opened.

One of the creepy old men came in, nose wrinkled. "Your first assignment will be too remove that pungent object from anywhere within my facility. Next will be for you to answer some questions for us," He turned and left clearly indicating they should follow.

Kari hopped down and Serei followed at a less energetic pace. On her way out Kari picked up the sock, and as they walked through the hallways she placed it deftly into a passing mechanics pocket. He took them to a dark, cold room, where a large computer covered the far wall. The scary scientist, known as Dr. J, ushered them in and offered them a seat. They sat down cautiously, watching him, hoping for some sort of assignment so they could get out of here. He sat down at the computer and brought up a picture of a mobile suit, which they quickly recognized as a Gundam. Dr. J studied there reactions carefully, but all they showed was mild curiosity. He cleared his throat, snaring their attention. They both looked up at him, instead of studying the picture.

"I'm sure you know that this is a Gundam. Gundam Deathscythe Hell to be precise, also referred to as Gundam 02." The girls absorbed the information, still waiting for the significance of this conversation. (a/n: Oh the irony, we know, they don't hmm . . .) "We have received word that pilot 02 is dead, we want to know how and why." Dr. J sighed as he still received no appropriate reaction, right now he needed to keep them busy and with him. There was no telling what they knew, and if it wasn't for their possible usefulness, they'd be dead already, poison in their food. For now, he would have to bide his time, if they knew too much, or their potential usefulness wore out he would dispose of them.

~*~*~ Back with Quatre (cause I know you were all on the edge of your seat)~*~*~

The hand spun him around, bringing him face to face with Heero. His eyes were lifeless, and dull, lacking in resolve of any form.

"What were you doing?" He asked glancing at Quatre's still exposed gun.

A bit uncomfortably Quatre responded, "I thought I saw someone, and I followed him, the sounds were coming from in there," he motioned vaguely to the room he had previously occupied. Heero glanced at it sharply, and walked in cautiously, after several moments of thorough searching he was content that there was no one in there. After declaring this he returned to his laptop, where he had spent the last few days searching for those infernal girls. Only later did he notice the room was Duo's old room, but for now, he had a mission.

~*~*~Outer Space (two weeks later)~*~*~

Kari glared threateningly at the computer, which was frozen at the moment and if it had to be shut down she would kill it! Pilot 02 had proved to be an elusive target. Even in death there was no word of him anywhere. Kari hated failure and before she could delve deeper into the underground world of the Gundam pilots, Dr. J had changed there assignment and they were currently working on gaining proper clearance into an Oz base, she was so certain she had found a way, when the computer stopped responding.

"GAGH!!!!" Serei jumped from her seat, where she had been brooding, from Kari's outburst. "THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME THIS WEEK!" The computer was rebooted by angry hands as Kari glared at Serei. "You know it wouldn't kill you to do a little research either!"

"You know that isn't my specialty, I go in to the base, as an infiltrator," Kari glared at her pathetic excuse.

"So do I, now stop thinking about that kid. We need to get some work done!" Serei's face looked startled, had she been that transparent?

"Listen I realize that you grow attached to your patients but we can't worry about him right now." Kari's stern expression softened slightly, "Listen after this job we can search for him, but right now-" She stopped abruptly, seeing that Serei already knew and that her speech wasn't helping at all. "I'm sorry, maybe you should get some rest," With that she guided Serei out of the room and into the general direction of their 'room.'

Kari sat down again and sighed, starting over once more pulled up the files on the Oz base, but her mind kept drifting to her distracted partner, with a deep sigh, she began to search for the braided young man and his four companions. Once she got this out of the way, Serei would be able to help her and they could actually accomplish something . . .

Kari gaped in surprise, there was no way this was possible, but then again it all fit. She fingered the disk she had stored her data in, not wanting to lose it all when it crashed. This definitely changed things, hell, it changed everything.

~*~*~The next day~*~*~

Kari approached Dr. J hesitantly, quietly tapping him on the shoulder, he was conversing with a brute of a man, called Dr. O, for some reason she had always been especially irked out by him. She whispered into his ear nervously her plight, he nodded and turned towards his office with a brief promise to later continue his conversation with O. J motioned for her to sit down, but instead she asked for permission to use his computer.

"Well, I realize this is no longer our mission but I found out who the murderer of pilot 02 was. I also know how and when . . ." She trailed off uncomfortably, gaging his reaction. She wasn't sure how'd he react to her answers. To her knowledge he had no ties to the pilots but you could never be sure. Taking a deep breath she continued, she told him her whole tale, finding the braided young man and the when and why they injected the virus, she stopped for breath after explaining their escape. "Serei was distracted from her work, worrying about the young mans welfare, so I searched for him. In a strange coincidence any leads I had found on the Gundam pilots which had dead end, seemed to coincide with my search for the young man. The young man I found, was Gundam Pilot 02." Dr. J watched her for a minute, apparently contemplating the issues.

There wasn't much of a choice, they knew too much already, he would have to get rid of them. If they had found the pilots, that sentenced them in and of itself. If only he could be sure of their loyalty but mercenary groups, even selective ones, were not to be trusted. He sighed, "Well Kari, it's good to know that you finished your original task, but now I must ask you to return to your previous assignment." Kari nodded and stood, exiting the room in silence. I guess now was time to remove that virus from her computer.

~*~*~ With our favorite Bishounen's . . . (one week later) ~*~*~

Heero stood up stretching. Those bloody girls had disappeared off the face of the Earth, (quite literally too.) He sighed, if he had listened to his training, he would've killed them right off, but something had been interfering with his rational judgment. He sighed, telling himself that it is no good to dwell on the past or the could have beens. He glared at the screen, his connections were slow and were driving him up the wall. It gave him too much time to think. His thoughts involuntarily turned to Duo, as they had done so often these last few days. He had a second chance and he hadn't taken it! How could he so ... heartless? He knew what he felt but he had restrained himself and he wouldn't be able to make up for it.

The screen blipped, but it wasn't what he was looking for, at least not at first It was a mission from Dr. J. but within it was a hint, a note and Heero knew exactly what he meant. Anger surged through him, an anger that had become slightly numb these past few weeks. He stomped out of the room, ready to complete this one last mission . . .

~*~*~Serei and Kari's POV~*~*~

Kari winced as she received a paper cut from a particularly vicious piece of paper. Here she was a highly trained specialist and her last two jobs had been janitorial and secretarial work. Serei glanced at her as she cursed the piece of paper and sent it to it's grave through the paper shredder. They weren't looking for job security here, so it didn't really matter. She glanced out the window as the sound of many footsteps resonated through the halls. The ms pilots were all suited up and looked to be heading for the hangar. As she swallowed that info, the attack alarm began ringing, waking even the deepest sleepers. [1]

Kari jumped up from her desk and into the hallway, heading for a small window at the top of the stairs that would show her everything on the north side of the building. She gasped when she saw the Gundam 01, towering over them, attacking viciously and without

care. What really scared her the most was the fact that there was only that one Gundam, sure the gundams were strong, but this base was filled to the brim with mobile suits and mobile dolls. There was no way he could make it out of here alive. Serei came up behind her and her eyes widened as she came to the same conclusion. Taking Serei by the wrist, Kari ran down the hall to a little known exit, they had a guard posted here to keep in deserters, but he could be bribed. Serei reached into her pockets knowing she only had a few dollars, then she motioned to Kari to do the same. Serei pulled out a few dollars and offered it to the guard, he glared at it offended.

Kari pulled out a wad of bills that she knew hadn't been there before. In astonishment she counted out $80.00. She gave the money to the guard who after a moment of thought, grudgingly let them pass. They ran right out into a battle, mobile dolls were flying around, shooting at the Wing Zero but it was dodging many of the blasts. She turned to flee back into the base, but found the door locked. Desperately they began pounding on the door. . . .

~*~*~Safehouse~*~*~

Quatre gazed out at the lawn, musing on the past weeks. Heero had become withdrawn, barely leaving his room, while Wufei meditated in his room when he wasn't out on a mission, Trowa spent most of his time together with Quatre, but, as happy as that made Quatre feel, there was something not right about the silence. He began to feel an incredible urge to go 'visit' Heero again. Without making a conscious decision he walked up the stairs, suddenly a sense of urgency caused him to take off running. He had to get to Heero's room, he wasn't sure why, he just had too get there. Upon entering the room, he noticed two things wrong.

One: there was no Heero, and two, his laptop was open. Quatre sat down on the computer and quickly 'looked' up Heero's recently deleted files. There was a mission, a very dangerous one, one that Heero couldn't handle on his own. Leaping from his chair, he ran towards the hanger, along the way gaining Trowa and Wufei's attention, at breakneck speed, he explained what he'd found as they took off . . .

~*~*~ THERE ~*~*~

Heero blasted through the two suits headed towards him, but couldn't get away from the three behind him. Zero stumbled forward as he fought the insurmountable number of suits. He knew it was a losing battle but as long as he took down the base and all it's occupants with him he didn't mind . ..

Unfortunately he didn't have much of a chance to attack the actual base, most of his time was spent defending himself, well he hadn't intended to live out the battle anyhow. He maneuvered himself towards the actual base, while keeping his Gundam away form damage, if he went they went with him. He glanced around, everyone was advancing on him and soon they would all die. He felt a stirring around him, something unrestful. He labeled it Death. Death was waiting for him and he was waiting for death. Well he was half right. They were close now, none would escape alive. He smiled as he pushed the self destruct button, but just before he did, he realized his mistake, it wasn't death that was accompanying him on this mission, not really. . .

"Duo!?"

~*~*~ Quatre ~*~*~

"Duo!?" Quatre glanced at the screen when the tortured name came through.

"Heero!?!" Quatre yelled in vain. He knew, he knew the exact moment the life left Heero's body, but he also felt the life of so many others around him, vaguely but surely. They continued on their course, but Trowa and Wufei both knew what they would find. They weren't disappointed. The entire base was destroyed, bits and pieces of Zero were scattered around, but the explosion destroyed any trace of any person for a 5 mile radius. They all left their Gundams staring sadly at the remains of Wing Zero, there wasn't enough of it left to even to begin to try to put it back together. Quatre wanted to believe that Heero had survived that time but unfortunately he felt nothing, not even pain, just a . . . hole, where Heero used to be . . . a hole to match Duo's . . .

~*~*~ 12 weeks later ~*~*~

Wufei grinned as he watched the two, not so secret, lovebirds swim in the pool together, and that wasn't all they were doing either. From this distance though, he couldn't really be certain. He sighed, walking back into the lonely house. It was a lot quieter, but no more than when Heero had still been alive, and somehow the silence seemed more balanced now. Feeling a but uneasy from his last two missions, Wufei headed to his room, to meditate, something he had done much more often lately, especially since there was less distraction. He would give anything though, to have a certain someone banging around, loudly complaining. He settled himself down in his room, cross legged on the floor. He settled himself in. His body relaxed as it reached a meditative state . . .

A loud crash, like the sound of a vase breaking interrupted him. Startled Wufei jumped up, and looked around. He exited the room, and in the hall he saw a vase on the floor shattered in pieces, flowers torn from the stems. It seemed, though not to the ever practical Wufei, that someone or perhaps two someones had taken his offer to heart . . .

The End

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Okay, I am not sure if this will be on in time, but mE thanks for your reviews ... they made me happy to come home and see them on my comp ... Thanks! Do you have an account? Any chance? Thank you soo much!

Well, there you are I have finally finished. I think I may end up posting an acknowledgments page of sorts, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

ETHELEA! She was indeed the wonderful hundredth reviewer! Umm well if there is anything I can do for you . . . ^^*

Well I did start 2 other stories during the course of this one, so I am going to try to finish those . . . Any preferences about which I update first? I may change this a bit later, but for now I am tired and I need some sleep. So! SAYŌNARA! Have a good week!

Does anyone want to make fun of my story? I mean like things that were . . . off. I have one: Duo was shot in the leg, yet he was able to walk several miles a few days later . . . Anyway if you have any tell me! I think they are funny and I may be able to fix them. (If I wanna) Or just any funny thing that 'could've' happened during the story. Other peoples ideas are great! (Ya know form a different POV)

Sorry about the delay, and as always review, tell me just how good or bad this was and I can handle flames, ^^*

~Emily Hato (and Hisasuke)