"Who's there?" asked a voice from the dark, a nasal squeak that was familiar to her. She knew exactly who they were and knew their names, but didn't answer.
A short dark figure broke from a larger shadow, walked toward her and knelt down beside her. Just as the shadow reached out to touch her she spoke.
"Touch me and die, Professor," her voice cracked through parched lips. Once the words were spoken, the eyes that once gazed sightlessly into the darkness, turned to meet the shadow with a savage truth with in them that made him stop immediately. Then, as suddenly as the danger flashed, it faded and disappeared.
Her eyelids drooped and her body swayed. She began to fall, but was caught by a strong solid arm behind her.
She winced a little pain but was silenced by a warm comforting voice. "We'll take care of you now. Just rest."
Not feeling threatened Katja gave into the darkness and gave full trust to the five men within the room.
"You let her what!!" shouted a furious Duo at Howard.
"I let her go. At first I didn't know where she was going, but the tracker picked her up on the Libra. She was gone before I could stop her," replied Howard in defense.
"I can't believe you did that!" bellowed Duo as he swung his arms around and paced.
"Chill out, Duo. We'll get her back. Besides she, can handle herself," said Heero as he stepped in front of Duo and blocked his path.
Duo paused in his tracks and glared at him, who returned the look with one of his own.
"Speaking of that, Heero, what actually happened to her wrist anyhow?" inquired Duo rudely.
Heero didn't respond, just stood there quietly.
"Why won't you say anything, Hee-ro? If you know she'll pull through on her own then you've got to know what happened to her wrist!" asked Duo, again, referring to a series of old jagged scars that were on Katja's wrists. He had asked Katja what they were from, but she wouldn't tell him. He didn't know where this was coming from, but something within him said that whatever questions he had about Katja, Heero knew the answer to.
"Um, Duo, just for the record books, what are you talking about?" asked Quatre as politely as he could.
Heero became obviously angry, and clenched his fists at his side to keep from punching Duo, both oblivious to Quatre.
"If you think I did that, you're wrong," he snapped through clenched teeth.
Duo took a step closer to Heero, knowing that he had hit a nerve and that all he had to do was to keep testing him before the truth would come out.
"Well she didn't get them when she was with me. And you seem to know a lot about her for only meeting her here on the ship," mocked Duo, "so come on and tell us."
Both Duo and Heero stood stone still, neither giving up when Heero spoke out of force.
"I know her because we trained together. And those scars came from a failed mission," he began, "She was captured and our orders were to kill ourselves if captured."
"That sounds familiar," said Wufei in the background. Everyone had their attention focused on Heero, as he spoke, ignoring Wufei.
"She had a knife in her boot and proceeded to cut at her wrist. I went against orders and went back for her. If I didn't she would have died," Heero stopped, still glaring at Duo, who now stood slightly stunned by what he had heard.
"But I don't understand, Heero," said Quatre, "how does that prove that Katja will get through this?"
Heero turned to face Quatre.
"When she was debriefed she said that she had tried everything to get out of the cell, and almost got out herself, but was caught again. And besides, I knew Katja before and after her parent's death. If she thinks that she can get out, she'll stop at nothing trying." He paused and turned back to Duo, "You should know that."
"Okay, here's the plan: We're going to follow Quatre with the Zero System. Everyone's main objective is to get into the Libra, find Katja and destroy it. Any questions?" asked Heero.
The four pilots stood there ready for battle, staring at Heero, silent.
"Alright, lets go," replied Heero.
They each grabbed their helmets and headed to their Gundams.
The five of them flew out of the Peace Million and headed straight for the battleship Libra. Heero separated from the group to search for Milliardo in a new type of mobile suite called the Epyon.
With Quatre behind the lines, shouting out orders, the four pilots worked like a machine, cutting down the mobile dolls like grass.
"What the hell is he doing?!" exclaimed Howard from the bridge of the Peace Million.
"It seems that Milliardo is going to crash the Libra into Earth," replied a crewman sitting in front of a screen.
"Not if I have anything to do about it. Set a course full speed directly at the Libra!" ordered Howard.
"Projected time of impact five minutes," called out a crewman from another area of the bridge.
"Anyone who wants to leave, do it now," ordered Howard sternly.
"What the hell is he thinking?" asked Quatre to himself as he watched the Peace Million crash into the Libra.
"This is our chance! Duo, Trowa, head for the Libra!" shouted Quatre as he too sped off to invade the Libra.
The three of them entered at about the same area. Quatre went to stop the mobile dolls, Trowa continued to cause severe damage and Duo went to find Katja.
Duo was running down the hall of what his map told him was the cellblock, and randomly stopped at one of the doors, placed some plastic explosives on the doorknob and blew the lock.
After the dust cleared he pulled his gun and cautiously peaked in the door.
"Awe, man, how come I'm the one to always find you guys?" he moaned when he discovered that the room he had opened contained the five scientists that built the Gundams and who were handing out orders earlier in the war.
"…We are prepared to pay for our sins. You've just got to get us there," explained Dr. J, the builder of Wing Zero, Heero's Gundam.
"I have no problem taking you to the Peace Million, but do you think it'll work?" asked Duo as he sat down on a ledge that posed as a bed near a large bundle of blankets. He leaned down on the blankets and waited for the scientists to continue, when the blankets began to groan and move.
Duo jumped back on his feet when he heard the sound and pulled his gun, aiming it at the pile.
The far end of the blanket flipped up and a shadowy figure sat up.
"What's going on?" asked the figure.
"Katja?" asked Duo, still a little stunned, his arms dropping to his side.
Katja leaned forward into the light and smiled weakly at Duo.
"What the hell happened to you? Why were you under those blankets?" asked Duo in a hurry.
"If you haven't noticed, it's a little cold in here," replied Katja in a cool, calm manner that seemed eerie.
Not realizing that the room was actually warm, Duo sat down next to her and absently listened to the scientist, babble to themselves. Nothing really registered, he was still excited that he had found Katja.
"Duo, we'd better be going," said Professor G, the builder of the Deathscyth, Duo's Gundam.
"Right. Let's get out of here," he replied as he got up with Katja at his side.
She seemed to walk normally, no limping or signs of torture, but that didn't mean anything. She could hide her pain well, and he new it. She had her black Oz jacket on, but it wasn't buttoned. They were the first to exit the door, their hands clasped together, Duo lead her a few feet away from the doorway.
"Katja, you're coming with me,"
"I can't, I've got to finish what I started," she replied weakly.
Duo stood there for a second studying her face.
"You'll have 30 minutes to get out of here. I've set enough explosives to blow it up five times. I don't want to go looking for body parts," said Duo with a light chuckle at the end.
Katja chuckled, then nodded and turned to go. Duo didn't let go of her hand and pulled her back into his arms. And without a word spoken, kissed her hard and passionately. His tongue separating her lips and caressing hers. His free hand found it's way around to her back and he started to pull her closer to him.
Katja responded to his kisses just as passionately, but the added pressure on the cuts caused a lightning bolt of pain to shoot across her back. She arched her back, trying to get away from his hand, but it just followed her movement and pinned her even closer to his body.
Duo held her tighter and tighter, until finally Katja cried out in pain, breaking the moment. Duo stopped putting pressure on her back, rested his hand on her hip and looked in her eyes curiously. Katja smiled at him weakly, her eyes expressing her pain and fatigue. She lightly kissed him on the lips, turned and ran way, releasing her grip on his hand before he could pull her back.
Stunned and confused, Duo stood there until she turned a corner and was out of sight. Then turned to face the scientists who were impatiently waiting for him to take them to the Peace Million.
Duo scowled, looked back over his shoulder down the empty hall, then back to the scientists and silently started on his way to his Gundam, the five men in tow.
"That's pretty sad, a woman who can't cry," said Trowa as he walked into the mobile doll control room. Where Dorothy Catalonia stood with a fencing foil in her hand, and an injured Quatre floated, due to the low gravity, unconscious.
Dorothy didn't say a thing, but just stood still while Trowa tore out the wires and control panels of the computer used to control the mobile dolls.
As the wires were pulled, bright squares on the ten foot tall screen across the room went out like candle flames.
When the room was dark, Trowa walked over to Quatre to see if he was alive. He had regained consciousness but was very weak from the stab wound in his side.
"You'd better get out of here, or you'll be destroyed," Trowa warned Dorothy, who was still standing silently still in the middle of the room.
With that, Trowa ducked under Quatre's right arm and helped him to his Gundam.
"Okay, here we are," said Duo over the speakers in the five men's helmets.
The five scientists climbed off the exterior of Duo's Gundam and headed to the bridge of the Peace Million.
"Duo try to keep it down out there!" shouted Professor G as he walked away from the Gundam.
Duo turned his Gundam around and was immediately hit with missiles from the mobile suites still fighting.
"Why don't you tell that to the enemy," Duo jested as he pulled his Gundam away from the Peace Million and rejoined the fight.
Katja stumbled into the engine control room. The small room was empty, most of the Libra's crew had evacuated already. Katja staggered across the small room to a gigantic control panel. She had to find a way to shut down the engines or at least to redirect them.
She found the shutdown button for the four engines and punched the first. The entire ship rattled and shook from the sudden decrease in speed. Two more engines went out without a problem, but the fourth wouldn't respond. Frantically Katja looked over the control panel to find the specific controls.
She looked at her watch. 23 minutes to go. I've got to hurry! She thought as her hands scanned the panel followed by her eyes.
"There," she said as she found the control for the forth engine.
It was a large knob that turned in either direction. Katja turned it a quarter of the way around to the left. The engine's power seemed to increase but in a different direction.
With a sudden jerk, the Peace Million's engines had fired, and both ships were headed out into space.
The sudden rapid movement of the ship caused Katja to fall to her knees by the control pane.
17 minutes. "Get up, Katja. GET UP!" she shouted to herself. At the second command she pulled herself erect and tried to jog out of the room to her Gundam.
Katja reached her Gundam in ten minutes and evacuated the ship. Just as she reached a safe distance the Libra and Peace Million exploded, killing anyone left on board.
None of the mobile dolls were moving, not one was fighting. The only ruckus came from the five Gundam pilots and some of the mobile suite pilots from Earth, who were destroying a section of the Libra that could still annihilate the entire population of the Earth.
As the chunk of the Libra began to enter the atmosphere, Heero flew down in front of it. And with his beam rifle took aim and fired.
The shockwave caused by the explosion caused Katja's Gundam to start flipping end over end. The backside of her Gundam was severely damaged by the explosion causing her space thrusters to malfunction.
"I can't get control of it! Someone help me, I can't stop!" shouted Katja as she strained with the controls.
Then just as she drew another breath to call out for help, she collided with something and stopped spinning.
"Are you alright?" cried Duo as his picture came up on her screen.
"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Katja faintly.
"Well I guess they meant it when they said they'd redeem themselves," said Duo as he thought back at the explosion of the Libra and Peace Million.
Katja slowly backed her Gundam away from Duo's with her front thrusters and prepared to fire her main boosters.
"Hey where ya goin'?" asked Duo as he watched her pull away.
"Duo, I'll meet you at home," she said, then cut the transmission.
Katja's Gundam fired its main boosters and sped off toward the Earth.
"Wait. What are you talking about?" yelled Duo as she fled away.
What is she talking about, home? The only home we ever shared was the Peace Million. Where is she going? thought Duo as he began to rack his brain for an answer.
"Hey Duo, where is Katja going?" called Quatre from afar.
"I don't know, I'm trying to figure that out," replied Duo.
"Well, isn't she from Earth? Maybe she's going to her birthplace now that the war is over," replied Quatre, trying to aid Duo in his mental search.
Birthplace, birthplace…
"Quatre you're a saint!" shouted Duo as it came to him. And he shot off for Earth, leaving the other pilots behind.
