"I don't know, Duo," said Quatre. "But we've got to try."

"Their mobile suits are getting stronger and stronger," WuFei said.

"So are ours. My newly rebuilt Gundam is a lot stronger than my old one. And so are Duo's and Heero's, " said Quatre. "You guys are acting so pessimistic. Come on, one day, we will defeat OZ. I know it!"

"You're right, Quatre," said Heero, hopping down from the high rock where he was sitting. "We can't lose hope now. Not now that we're all back together, stronger and more efficient that ever." He sat down on a rock next to Quatre's.

"They are strong, though. We must work to be stronger," said WuFei.

"The colonies have turned against us. It seems like no one's on our side, now," said Duo. "I don't mean to be pessimistic, but it's true."

"No, it's not," said Quatre. "Lady Une took a bullet for you and WuFei. She might never be able to fight again, she barely got out of it alive."

"And then there's the Gundam makers, and Colonel Tres. And Zechs and Lutenient Noin," said Hero.

"And Relena," said Duo.

"Relena....I wonder why we haven't seen much of her, lately," said WuFei.

"Do you....do you think she was....." Duo couldn't bring himself to finish.

"No, I don't think she was killed. Zechs would never let that happen," said Quatre. "But maybe.....I've got an idea! Heero, could you establish a connection to Trowa?"

"Sure, but I don't exactly see why." Heero began typing into the laptop. After a few seconds, Trowa's face appeared on the screen. "All yours, buddy." Heero handed Quatre the laptop.

"Thanks. Trowa? This is Quatre. Do you read me?"

"Yeah, Quatre."

"Hey, how are you, Trowa?"

"Getting better. Man, that Gundam of yours sure packs a punch. I'm lucky I'm alive after that blast."

"Well, it's good that you're getting better. Again, I'm sorry about the....incident."

"No biggie. The doctors at OZ are great, and the nurses are really cute."

Quatre didn't answer. He thought of his dear sister, who died stopping him from hitting a wall. It was partly OZ's fault. And the colonies'.

"Look, Quatre, we know you're upset about your sister....and your father....so do you want me to talk to Trowa for you?" asked Duo.

"No, thanks Duo, but I can do it," Quatre wiped a tear off of his face. "Trowa, we called to ask you a favor."

"Go ahead."

"Has there been any talk of new prisoners? Female prisoners?"

"Actually, yes. An new girl ,they said. Tried to resist OZ soldiers. Blonde, they said. Pretty, too."

"Relena!" gasped Heero under his breath.

"Thank you, Trowa. Listen in, and if you find out anything more, let us know, would you?"

"Sure thing," said Trowa.  "And Quatre.....I'm glad to hear you snapped out of it and are back to normal."

"Thanks, Trowa." and at that, Trowa and Quatre logged off.

"So...now what do we do?" asked Duo.

"We wait," replied Quatre.

"Wait? Why wait? We know the girl there is Relena, and so we should - "

"No, Heero, we don't know if that prisoner is Relena. She could be someone else. We should just sit back and wait until we get more information from Trowa."

"I don't like waiting," said Heero.

"Well, find something to do to keep your mind off waiting," said Quatre.

"Okay. WuFei? You wanted to become stronger?" asked Heero.

"Yeah."

"Then let's go find some OZ soldiers to attack."

"Sounds good to me."

"Hey, you guys aren't gonna go killing OZ soldiers withou me, are ya?" asked Duo.

"Come, if you want to, then," said Heero.

"I'll come as well. Just to sharpen my skills," said Quatre.

"Then let's go," said Heero.

They left the sandy beach on which they were sitting on large rocks, and went over to their Gundams.

"Everybody ready?" asked Quatre. "Then let's go!"

They blasted off into the air.

"Where should we head to?" asked Duo.

"How about the EMDF? It's got a lot of OZ soldiers protecting it," said Heero.

"The EMDF?" asked Duo. "What's that?"

"That stands for the Earth Mobile Doll Factory. It's near the Sank kingdom."

"Then let's go!"

They flew off to find and destroy the EMDF.

"Hey, there it is!" exclaimed Duo. "I'm sure that's it!"

"You're right, Duo, that's EMDF allright!" replied Heero.

"I'll take the back. WuFei, you go to the left, and Duo to the right. Heero, since I know you love this, you go head- on."

"Thanks, Quatre," said Heero quietly as the others blasted off to take their positions.

"NOW!" Heero shouted as they blasted their ways into the factory. Heero, blasted right in through the front gates, firing at everything that moved. WuFei entered from the left, carefully choosing which OZ soldier to kill and then blasting it to pieces and moving onto another. Duo entered from the right and he just sliced 'n' diced with the his scythe. Catra attacked the back. He told the guards to surrender and he wouldn't hurt them, but they attacked anyway. He sighed and shouted. "I TOLD YOU YOU SHOULD'VE SURRENDERD!!" and shot them. Then he took on some mobile dolls that were sent to attack. "How's it going, guys?" Catra radioed the others as he sliced a mobile doll.

"Fine," Heero replied as he open fired on a troop of mobile dolls coming his way.

"Good," replied WuFei, slicing an OZ Leo.

"And how about you, Duo?" Quatre asked Duo. "Duo? Duo, can you hear me? Duo! Answer! Oh, no! Shit! Guys, Duo's not responding! I'm gonna go help him." He blasted out of there and flew as fast as he could to the right side of the building. There he found Deathscythe, on the ground, furiuosly trying to save itself by wildly slicing at the Leo suits coming his way.

Quatre took Sandrock's scythes and cut up the approaching Leo suits.
"Duo, Duo, are you okay? Duo?"

"Yeah......" Duo replied weakly. "There were.........just..........too many to handle......." the door to his gundam opened and he fell out.

"Duo!" Sandrock's door opened and Catra jumped out to help Duo. "Duo, you should have radioed for help. There are so many guards out here, you could have been killed."

"Yeah, that's right kid," Quatre whipped around to find a cocky-looking, red- haired OZ soldier with a gun pointed at Catra and Duo.

Quatre stood, hands raised.

"And tell your friend to get up, too."

"He can't get up, he's been wounded!"

"I don't care! Tell him!"

Quatre quickly formed a plan.  He turned to face Duo. He leaned down a bit and put one hand on the ground for balance as he kicked up and back, hitting the OZ soldier *right* where it hurts. The soldier thrown off and filled with pain,  fell backwards, but not before Catra whipped around and took the soldier's gun.

"I could kill you right now," said Quatre. The soldier drew back in fear. "But I won't. Now, get away from here, as fast as you can!"

The soldier nodded his head shakily and raced off.

"You okay, Duo?"

"Yeah."

Quatre helped him up. "Can you still pilot your gundam?"

"Yeah, I think so. As long as I don't do much fighting, I'll be fine."

Duo and Quatre both got in their gundams.

As they turned the corner to meet the others, they found an army of mobile dolls led by one Leo. That Leo was piloted by the very same red-haired soldier. "Ha! Thought you'd seen the end of me, ay?" he jeered.

Quatre shook his head. "You have made a grave mistake." He took one of his scythes and cut the Leo right down the middle! The mobile suit stood their for a second, just tottering........and then fell to the ground in two pieces. He cut up a few mobile dolls. One mobile doll barely missed his scythe and attacked Quatre!

But........ who should come to help but Zechs Merquis!

"I heard about the battle. I came to help."  Tallgeese fired at the mobile doll attacking Quatre. The Sandrock and the Tallgeese together defeated the army of mobile suits.

"Thank you, Zechs," said Quatre.

"No problem," replied Zechs. "I should be going now. You can take it from here." and at that, he blasted off.

"Duo, you still okay?"

"Yeah.....I'm fine."

"Then let's go meet up with Heero and WuFei."

"Okay."

They blasted up into the air and flew over to where Heero and WuFei were. They had gotten out of their gundams and were sitting on the ground, waiting.

Duo and Quatre landed, and jumped out of their gundams (well, Duo sort of fell out.)

"What happened to you, Duo?" asked Heero without any sympathy at all in his voice.

"Too many guards.......I couldn't use my scythe fast enough to kill them all with that........and I ran out of regular ammunition."

Heero didn't reply. He took a sip of water.

"Thanks for caring about me," he sarcastically told Heero. "You're a real pal."

"We should get Duo to a doctor," said Quatre.

"Whatever," said Heero.

"Come on, guys. Our work here is done," said Quatre. "Let's go."

They got into their gundams and blasted off. They returned to their secret hideout.

Quatre made sure that Duo was put into his room right away and his wounds attended to. WuFei and Heero watched as Quatre bandaged Duo's wounds.

"You know, when you 'play doctor' you almost look like-" Duo stopped himself. He was about to say "your sister", but he knew that would upset Quatre. "A- a real doctor...."

"I know what you were about to say, Duo. But it's alright," Quatre said as he worked. He brushed a tear off his face and forced himself to stop others from coming.

Duo lay back, for once having nothing to say.

"I wonder if Trowa's found out anything," Heero said.

"He said he'd contact us if he did," said Quatre. "Just be patient."