NOTES: Ack!!! Gomen nasai!!!! I am soooo sorry for delaying this for what? Three weeks?! I DO have an excuse….kinda…maybe….you judge for yourself. I caught pneumonia when I was half way through writing this. Now Pneumonia is very bad (deadly for the elderly) and I have asthma so it wasn't pretty. I got better but I lost the zest to write. Now I am MUCH better (thank God) and I am back!

Well, here it is, the last part of my little mad story. Wow! I actually finished a story! ::Dances:: This is a nice sweet chapter, it's purpose is to put a smile on your faces. Wanna a little clue on what's in the Epilogue? Nah, just read it. It's nice.

Thank you all for reading this! Hope you all had as much fun reading it as I had fun writing it!

J

THE TARGETS

EPILOGUE

"Kaiya!!! They're all there! All of them!!!"

"Really! I can't see with everybody here…Oh! Omi-kun!"

Both girls hopped up and down in excitement as they got the young boy's attention. Omi put on his most cheerful smile and dodged past a dozen shrieking and swooning girls to meet his classmates. "Kaiya! Rioka! Can I get you anything?"

Omi nearly bit his tongue as he was roughly shoved aside (and dangerously close to some squealing freshmen who wanted his autograph).

"Ladies, how may I help you?"

Omi gaped for a moment then laughed, "Duo! Those are my friends from school!"

The braided bishonen grinned manically at the blushing girls, enjoying every moment the attention was on him. "Wow! You two beautiful women go with Omi to school? You looked much much older and more mature!"

Both girls turned scarlet under the dashing American boy's words. Omi who did not mind having the girls preoccupied with the other boy turned to the next customers…the freshmen.

Kaiya pointed at Duo's neck. "Are your wounds healing up, Duo-kun?"

Duo paused in arranging a bunch of irises and lifted his hand to the bandages on his neck. His smile was a little forced, "Yeah. I'll be good as new soon."

Rioka took the flowers from Duo and clutched them to her, her eyes wide. "Omi-kun told us at school that you were in a bad accident with two of your friends. That's how you got all cut up in the face…from the glass."

Duo shrugged. "No biggie. These things happen."

Kaiya looked worriedly at the deep healing cuts under Duo's eyes. "I hope they don't scar."

Duo laughed suddenly, throwing his hands behind his neck and braid. "You two don't have to worry about a thing! Here, is there anything else I can help you with?"

As Duo continued to chat with the two girls, Aya, who stood with Heero by the cash register, growled angrily at a dozen girls who just stood before them gawking (some drooling) and standing like a bunch of mindless dolls. "Buy something or leave!"

This brought life into the mindless dolls, who started screeching and yelling at how sexy Aya's voice was. Aya rolled his eyes and gave one girl her change and watched her blush and leave with her purchase…her third purchase of the day. Beside him Heero smirked in amusement. "The last girl who chased after me like that nearly got herself shot twice."

Aya looked at the dark-haired boy in mild interest. "Oh?"

Heero looked up at the red haired man. "She kept on stalking me and I kept on trying to shoot her."

"But…"

Heero shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "I fell in love with the girl I was trying to kill."

Aya blinked and for a moment his face was expressionless before a small smile formed on his lips. Though it disappeared when one girl fainted right in front of the cash register.

Yoji looked over at the commotion near the cash register and nearly laughed out loud. Wufei who was being lectured on the art of ignoring women yet still maintaining an air of irresistibility, looked at the scene that the tall man found amusing and rolled his eyes. "Again! Don't these women have anything better to do other than come here to act like brainless fools?"

Trowa who was helping Ken carry a large flowerpot laughed out loud at this and said as he passed his angry friend, "At least they are happy. You don't see this many girls as happy and carefree as this back home, Wufei. Enjoy it."

Wufei glared at the Heavyarms's pilot back as the boy went into the trailer with Ken, nearly falling as two small girls that looked no older than twelve ran by waving daisies they had just bought. Wufei groaned. "How much longer must I suffer this…this degradation?"

Yoji lifted a perfect brow and lit a cigarette. "What? You sound as if you don't like the attention. Here…check out the lovely broad in the red mini-skirt. Aren't those legs just delicious…hmm?"

Wufei's cheeks pinkened and he turned his head away, "I don't need to look. I am not a crude man."

Yoji pulled at the Chinese boy's small ponytail, earning him a loud indignant squawk. The playboy said, "You are getting married, right."

As Wufei readjusted his ponytail, he nodded.

Yoji grinned, "You don't think you could share this woman of your dreams can you?"

For a moment, Wufei just started at the man with wide black eyes, then they narrowed and Yoji could have sworn that steam came from the boy's ears. His minutes of triumph were short lasted as the boy pulled out a pair of sharp scissors and lunged at him.

Ignoring the onlookers, the two ran, one for revenge, the other for his life.

Omi finished an arrangement and took a deep breath and looked at Ken who was coming out of the trailer with Trowa. "I'm going to take a short break."

If Ken or Trowa heard they did not have time to acknowledge it before another swarm of girls came over asking for their help. Omi smiled at the familiar spectacle and using his assassin skills, entered the trailer unnoticed.

Sighing, Omi looked to the figure on the couch and smiled when his eyes met a pair of aqua eyes. "You're supposed to be sleeping."

Quatre shrugged, "Can't really. Too much noise." He smiled up at Omi. "Has Duo stopped flirting yet or is he still on a rampage?"

"On a rampage."

"Trowa?"

"Like a professional, he's assimilated into the role of florist."

"Heero?"

"Hasn't shot anyone yet."

"Wufei?"

"At this moment trying to kill Yoji with a pair of scissors."

Quatre laughed and Omi sat by him, relaxing and enjoying a few moments of relaxation. After the moments were up Omi said, "The girls from yesterday were asking about you."

Quatre blushed at his ears and found his bandaged hand interesting. The blonde boy was practically covered in bandages. "I wish they understood that I am already taken."

"Dorothy?"

Quatre smiled at the name. "In a way it was sort of arranged by the company and my sisters. Ms. Catalonia was the granddaughter of the Duke Dermail of Romefellar, and he was also Trieze Kushrenanda's uncle."

"Noble blood."

Quatre nodded. "I am of noble blood, whether I like it or not. I tried running away from it, by first running from home, then by joining the war as a Gundam Pilot. But after all that running I ended up the same place, Quatre Raberba Winner."

"Do you love her?" Asked Omi quietly. His mind drifting to a forbidden love with a spunky and beautiful young girl who was now dead.

Quatre was about to answer when the door to the trailer flew open and Duo came running in, his braid held in his hand and panic in his violet eyes. "Quick Quatre! Hide!"

Both boys looked at the braided one in shock. Quatre finally found his tongue to ask. "Duo…what is wrong?"

Duo was almost bouncing on his toes as he shut the door and glanced nervously through the window. "Its her, Quatre…that homicidal girl! The one that nearly got us killed that day we went walking!"

Quatre laughed at the memory and said, "I doubt she is going to follow you in here, Duo."

Duo twisted her braid. "She's homicidal. Nothing is going to stop her!"

Omi just laughed at this, finding the fact that a galaxy terrorist and rebel, a boy who went by the name of the God of Death, was frightened of an obsessed girl.

Duo continued ranting, "Where's Hilde when I need her? I mean the girl is constantly showing up when I need her, so where the Hell is she?"

Quatre said, "I can't wait to tell her about his. I think she'd be laughing on the floor!"

Duo turned to his friend and said seriously, "Hilde will NOT hear ANYTHING about THIS."

Quatre looked at Omi who continued to laugh and shrugged. "Can I at least tell Dorothy?"

"Not a soul, Winner." Hissed the American.

Quatre shrugged again but said, "I doubt you'll be able to stop Wufei from saying anything to Sally, or Heero from talking to Relena."

"I could tell Sally that Wufei was checking out girls here, and I can always tell Heero that I saw you and Relena together…hmm…I would think Dorothy would find this information interesting."

Omi's eyes widened. "Would you do that Duo?"

Duo burst out laughing. "Of course not. I never lie like that!" The braided pilot went over to the window and looked out again. "I think she's gone." He grinned again and turned back to the two sitting boys. "Hey, I'm going back out there. If I disappear, you two know that an obsessed girl that had a thing for gorgeous American boys from the future murdered me! See ya!"

He was gone. Both Quatre and Omi burst out laughing at the other boy's antics. Omi sighed, "I think the place will be very quiet once you five leave…especially Duo leaving."

Quatre nodded. "I'll miss all this I guess. But I still can't wait till I get back home."

"Too many bad memories."

Quatre's eyes darkened and he nodded grimly. "I nearly repeated a past mistake. I could have killed all of you back there."

"But you didn't."

Quatre sighed. "I was able to come to my senses." The blond boy arched an eyebrow at Omi. "What about you? I never got to asking you about how you were feeling after being overwhelmed by the Zero System."

Omi shivered at the memory, not wanting to remember nearly killing Yoji and Aya. "A bad memory among the many in my head." He grimaced, "I could write a book of all the crap that is my life."

Quatre looked away, not wanting to be too bothersome to the other hurting boy. "There is hope." He said softly.

Omi looked at him. "I don't see it, Quatre. I am probably going to live and die in WeiB. This is all crap."

Quatre touched the bandages on his hands his eyes going slightly distant. "When I was with Swartz, they kept on telling me that there was no help for the future, that history would constantly repeat itself over and over…" He closed his eyes, "An endless waltz that will never stop."

Omi looked at him but said nothing. "I fought the war to make a difference, so that in the future people could live in piece. I sacrificed my childhood…and my father to become a Gundam Pilot. I lost a lot."

"Was it worth it?" Asked Omi.

Quatre suddenly smiled and he said, "Look outside. Out there, working with your friends are four of the galaxy's terrors. Yet now Heero has fallen in love when he was trained from childhood not to feel emotions. Wufei is engaged after loosing everyone he had known, Trowa has found a sister and is living with her, Duo is out there working with his girlfriend and acting like his age. I am looking forward to an arranged engagement to a friend and doing the only thing my father wanted me to do…be his heir. In a way we are all finding happiness in others who will love us. I guess my answer is, yes. It was worth it."

Omi looked away and said, "What of us? I don't know about the others, but WeiB is the only thing I know."

Quatre shook his head. "No. Outside there are three men who are your family. They are not WeiB, they are just men who care about you and will take care of you as they have done so far. They won't betray you, Omi."

Omi shivered, remembering how the Zero System had convinced him that his friends would betray him one day. The system had played on his weakness, but Omi had beaten it with the help of his friends…his family.

Omi smiled, wondering how Yoji would react if he started calling him 'Niisan'. Ken would enjoy it, and Aya wouldn't mind…Omi shook his head and laughed. "You are very convincing. Are you using your gifts on me?"

Quatre smiled and shook his head. "No. I don't need to. You already know the truth, Omi, you just needed someone to point it out to you again."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

Suddenly there was a crash outside, making both boys jump. Seconds later Aya was shouting, "Omi get out here! Now!"

Then Duo was shouting, "Hey Quatre, if you are feeling better we really…really need some extra hands here!"

Both boys looked at each other and laughed.

**************************************************

The laboratory room was dark and almost ominous. The silence was almost deafening through non-in the room voiced a complaint. The laboratory that had once been destroyed nearly a month ago by WeiB's attack was now restored, clean, and functioning, yet on each machine and each wall was taped a small bomb that were going to be used once the job was complete.

Aya, Omi, Yoji and Ken stood facing Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei. All nine young men were grim, not even Duo was smiling. Standing aside Manx looked on with sad green eyes, her manicured hand resting on the lever that would send the five Gundam Pilots back to the future.

"So…" managed Duo, trying his best to lift a grin and lighten the mood. "I guess this is it. We're going to be out of your hairs for good."

"Yes." Said Aya coldly, his eyes slightly averted. "Your stay has been tedious and you got in our way many times."

Duo scowled and looked at Heero, "I still say you two are related, nobody can be such a cold bastard. It's the genes!"

This made some smile slightly. Ken said, "We will miss your help around the shop…and the girls will be devastated to find all of you gone."

Heero said, "Maybe now you will get less customers…"

Trowa interjected, "We enjoyed working alongside with you all. We are grateful for what you have done."

Wufei bowed, "We are in your debt…" He glanced at the grinning Yoji, "And I still have not had my revenge for that uncalled for remark, Kuduo."

Yoji laughed at this and said, "Any time lover boy! I look forward to it!"

Wufei blushed at this reference but smiled at the tall man. "One day a woman is really going to make you sorry for that big mouth of yours."

Ken laughed out loud and nudged Yoji, "And I will be there laughing my head off!"

They all laughed at this, even Heero and Aya managed to crack a smile.

Quatre coughed and looked at the four assassins, his eyes becoming sad. "No 'thanks' are good enough for all that you have done."

Heero nodded, looking at the blond pilot. "Don't even try Quatre. Just simply say good bye."

Quatre looked at Heero, then at his friends, then back at WeiB. Behind them Manx pulled the lever she had been leaning on. Buttons and gadgets lighted up, and the two restored started to glow. The room illuminated with the glow for a moment, everyone turning to look as they was a burst of blue light and then a whirling funnel of silver and blue appeared.

Duo's eyes widened and he looked at Manx, "Hey, wasn't it a mist before?"

Manx said, "We were not able to copy the scientist's technology exactly. This is the best we could do."

Omi spoke nervously, "But is it going to sent them back home?"

Manx did not smile as she said, "We hope so."

"Hope!" Trowa said. "You mean after all this time you are not sure?!"

Wufei said, "For all you know we could end up further in the past!"

Manx shook her head. "No. It is the future. Now calm down. The funnel will remain open until you send us back something to let us know that everything is fine. If not you could always come back."

"Kinda risky." Muttered Ken, looking uncomfortable. Yoji nodded.

Heero spoke, "Our lives have always been risky."

Duo suddenly grinned. "Your right." He turned to Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre. "C'mon you guys! We are Gundam Pilots! A mere little tunnel isn't going to stop us."

Wufei clenched his fists and straightened his back. "It would be cowardly of us if we do not go on."

"We are Gundam Pilots." Said Trowa softly, eyeing the funnel with determination.

Quatre hesitated and looked back at the four nervous looking men…even Aya was looking at the funnel with suspicion.

Omi came forward, looking at Quatre. "Are you going to do it?"

Quatre smiled gently at the youth. "Do we have a choice?" He looked at his friends waiting for him. He turned back to Omi and said, "You all are just like us, and I hope…that maybe one day you will find some kind of peace."

Omi blinked as Quatre continued, "Remember Omi, those three are your family. They don't have to be blood brothers, they don't have to be perfect." Quatre looked at the other three WeiB members. "They are all you have, so protect them as well as you can…just like they do for you. They won't betray you."

Quatre looked straight into Omi's eyes and repeated: "They won't betray you."

Omi's eyes threatened to start to tear, but he smiled at the other boy and said in a voice that shook. "I know. I just have to keep on reminding myself." He looked over his shoulder.

Stubborn and strong Aya…

Calm and go lucky Yoji…

Friendly and kind Ken…

Brothers…

They would never betray him…

They would protect him…

And he would protect them.

Quatre turned away from the four and stood by Duo who grinned a manic 'we are so going to die' grin. "Lets go?"

Heero nodded at them and without hesitating ran into the funnel, Wufei and Trowa a step behind him. Duo and Quatre both hesitated and looked back at the four young men. Duo saluted them and Quatre waved. Then the last two pilots also turned and ran through the funnel.

Omi waited anxiously, noticing Yoji pulling out a cigarette and Ken biting his nails. Both Manx and Aya stared at the funnel. Then disaster struck as the rods exploded in a ray of sparks that set the machinery around on fire.

Aya and Yoji quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher that was set aside while Omi ran dangerously near the flames, trying desperately to see if the five boys on the other side were alright. As the cold liquid suffocated the flames the funnel slowly died down and disappeared without a trace.

Ken ran to Manx and grabbed her shoulders, "Manx! We don't know if they made it!"

Manx could only stare with wide eyes at the destruction. It happened too fast. Too fast…not enough time…

Omi swallowed hard and turned to the others. "They'll be alright!" he said. "They have to be!" His voice cracked and he turned away. "They have to be!"

Aya came behind him and placed a strong hand on his shoulder. "Trust in them, Omi." He said.

Yoji nodded and lit another cigarette. "Knowing them they'll be fine wherever they are."

"But…" Whispered Omi. "Do you think they made it home."

Ken joined them and said, smiling softly. "All we can do is hope."

They all nodded and Omi looked back at the blackened rods. "They'll be alright." he whispered. "No matter what…they will make it."

************************************************

Nagi nearly jumped a couple of feet into the air when a maniacal laughter rang from the locked room. Slowly standing up from where he had been dismally sitting, he approached the door, unlocked it, and peered inside, ignoring how the laughter made the hairs on his arms stand.

"Farefello…" He whispered, but suddenly a hand clamped onto his shoulder making him jump and twirl around.

Crawford towered over him, looking pale, but there was a relieved smirk twisting his thin lips. "Nagi…shut the door."

Nagi nodded and reached for the doorknob but Crawford caught his wrist gently and said, "No Nagi…shut the door."

Nagi pulled away and said coldly, not bothering to look up at the man. "What's the use? My powers are gone."

Crawford leaned forward, his smirk turning feral.

Nagi sighed, knowing that if he did not obey he'd end up regretting it someway or other. Turning to the door he willed it to shut, and instead of finding himself blocked by a wall, his powers flew through him, slamming the door shut and locking it.

Nagi gasped, "How…"

Then Schulrig came up to them, almost skipping, his shoulders heaving in laughter. "The world is no longer so silent." He tossed his flaming hair over his shoulder. "I'm going outside to feast on all the voices and emotions. Don't expect me back for a week." Schulrig licked his lips and walked away, "I'm starving."

Crawford did not stop the German man as he left. He looked down at Nagi and said, "The Empath is gone."

"He returned to the future?"

Crawford smirked, "The future…"

Nagi frowned at this, but looked at the door as a weight smashed into it. "Farefello no longer feels pain."

"We are all back to normal."

Nagi sighed, "I guess you want me to hold him while you tie him?"

Crawford grinned, "Go on."

Nagi smiled. Everything was back to normal.

The Empath was gone. Where…when…how…it did not matter.

He was gone.

All of them were gone.

Good riddance.

THE END

Ok. I guess you are all wondering if they made it back? Actually, for those who want it to be so, then they did make it. Meaning Crawford was just having fun by saying "The future?" That's what I originally planned. Now I repeat, for those who want it, consider the Gundam boys back home.

***********

Now for those who want me to go on with what I have in mind listen to this: I am planning on going on and making a Slayers and Gundam crossover. Takes place where the boys come through the funnel and instead of finding themselves back home, they find themselves in another place all together.

In it I'm going to be playing with my thoughts on the boy's heritage, and the unnatural. Quatre's powers, Heero's strength, and Duo's obsession with Death. All of them are special, and in this I am going to play with why.

Event though Slayers is a comedy, the story will still have the same tone as The Targets.

Hehe…tell me what you all think!

Rue