Mineko’s thoughts didn’t stop there though. She had many more about her past as a Gundam Pilot.

Mineko was in the middle of the dream of the time OZ fist captured her, when a hand pushed her shoulder lightly.

Mineko opened her eyes calmly and blinked a few times before yawning. Hero and Duo were half way out of their seats and Quatre was already gone. Trowa was standing in front if Mineko.

“We’re here.” He said calmly before reaching out his hand to help Mineko. Mineko just blinked a few times. She seemed to have forgotten why they where on a shuttle. The expression must have reached her face fully because Trowa explained. “We’re going to find Wufei.” Was all he needed to say. Mineko took his hand and got up. She was a bit tired still thoughts of the past ran through her head.

“Hey Mineko! What happened to the idea of visiting all the old spots?” Duo said as Mineko and Trowa came out of the shuttle.

“It wouldn’t be the same without Wufei.” Mineko smiled a bit. “So where was the last place he was seen?”

“He was seen walking somewhere near the corner of 8^th and Vixon.” A voice came from outside the port.

“Sally. How’d…” Duo seemed a bit confused.

“I left last night.”

“Oh.”

“Mineko?” Quatre asked making sure he was out of wear shot of Duo. Mineko turned to look at Quatre.

“Hm?” She asked as she looked down at Quatre.

“Are you ever going to tell Duo about you and Wufei? You haven’t let it on as such a big deal about his disappearance in front of Duo.”

“I guess I should. I can’t leave him in the dark.” Mineko said looking over to Duo. He was bouncing around Heero and Trowa. Heero finally grabbed his braid and he nearly fell. Mineko smirked at it. “Later.” Mineko said. Quatre and Mineko where walking side by side.

They all reached a truck that Sally had been leading them to. They all hopped in and took off.

Man. Duo thought to himself. He couldn’t stop staring at Mineko who was sitting beside him in the back seats. Heero was driving and Sally was directing him on where to go. But he didn’t like it at all. Quatre and Trowa where guarding the back. It contained weapons and needed tools to help find Wufei.

Duo continued to stare. She was just so…beautiful. The light from outside the window made her short blue hair shine. Her eyes where kind of hazed and where distant. Man. She’s so beautiful. They don’t know. But I know how much she loves Wufei. And Wufei. Shit. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had. Next to maybe Quatre. I have to protect her on this mission. I know I do. Wufei could trust me with just about anything, even if his favorite thing to say to me is Kisama.

For Wufei, I need to keep her safe. Damn It! Wufei’s more than a just a best friend. He’s like a brother. Duo’s mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts about her and Wufei. And his new mission on top of this one. But his thoughts where soon interrupted.

“Hey Sally?” Mineko’s lips moved, and sound came out, but it was dull. Nothing else about her moved except her lips to form one little question. She finally turned her head to face Sally. But her eyes remained unblinking.

That’s gotta hurt. Duo thought to himself as he watched.

“…Then you need to take a right at the next light. What is it?” Sally turned to face Mineko.

“How did you know it was me? When you came in. No one else seemed to know it was me.”

“I was standing there listening to your conversation.”

“Oh.” Mineko said.

When they arrived at the spot where Wufei was last seen, They all got out of the truck and stretched a little bit.

“Ok. Heero, you search the ally. Duo. You search the street. Sally. I want you to help Duo. Trowa, you help Heero. Quatre, you and I will search this warehouse.”

“Mineko.”

“Yes?” Mineko asked as she turned to Sally.

“I called for back up shortly after before you arrived here. They should be here soon.”

“We’ll find Wufei in whatever dungeon he’s in, or some heads are gonna roll. Literally.”

“How do you know?”

“Know what?”

“That he’s in a dungeon.”

“I don’t. Why?”

“You just said…”

“I did?” Shit. “Oh. I don’t remember.”

“Right. Lets get to work.” Sally finally said and ended Duo and Mineko little memory flight.

They all got weapons out of the back of the truck, and went to work.

Mineko walked into the warehouse and Quatre fallowed. They had their guns out and ready. It was dark, so Mineko pulled out a flare she got from the back of the truck.

“How many of those you have?” Quatre said looking at Mineko.

“Five.”

“Can I have one?”

“Sure.” Mineko reached into her pocket and handed one to Quatre. Quatre lit his on Mineko’s flare.

“You think we’ll find anything?”

“I don’t know. I just thought that we should check in here just in case. Like the guy said, he saw someone take Wufei into the ally.”

“Yeah. Mineko?”

“What?” Mineko turned a corner and put her gun in front of her. She heard something and thought it was anyone but what she saw. There was a little girl sitting on the floor crying. She was skin and bones, and was dirty. Her hair was a mess, and her once pink dress was torn. She looked like Mineko felt.

“How did you know Wufei was in a dungeon. I know you said it for a reason.”

“Yeah. I did. I’ll explain later.” Mineko walked up to the little girl. She put her gun away. “It’s ok. Come here. I’m not going to hurt you. Are you lost?” Mineko looked around. The girl merely nodded. “I’m gonna get you out of here and I’m gonna make sure you’re brought to place with food and warm beds. Ok?” the girl nodded again. “What your name?” Quatre sat down next to Mineko. The girl moved away. “It’s ok. He’s a friend. His name is Quatre. I’m Mineko.”

“I’m Melissa.” The little girl said. She was clutching and old bear. But it was fairly new and pretty clean.

“Ok Melissa. We’re going to get you out of here.” Quatre said as he stood up. Mineko picked the child up in her arms and they headed back.

“What are you doing here?” The little girl asked. She seemed only about five or six.

“We’re looking for someone.” Mineko stopped and pulled a picture out of her pocket. “Have you seen this man?”

“Uh-huh.” The girl nodded her head.

“You have? Where?” Quatre beat Mineko to the punch line.

“I saw him at the corner of the ally and warehouse. I think he was taken into the ally. But then I saw him in here.” The little girl laid her head on Mineko chest. “I’m tired.” The little girl closed her eyes and went to sleep.

“Uh…” Mineko stood there. “Um…. right.”

“C’mon. lets take her out to the others. Someone can take her to an orphanage.” Quatre said. They headed out of the warehouse. “Mineko?”

“What?” Mineko was getting a bit irritated with Quatre constantly saying her name. Mineko merely looked at Quatre and stopped. His eyes told her what he wanted to know. “Ok. I had a dream. And Wufei was captured and taken to a dungeon…” Mineko explained the whole dream. And Quatre seemed a bit shocked. They exited the warehouse and stopped talking about it. Mineko didn’t think the others should know.

“Who’s that?” Sally asked as she exited the warehouse.

“Melissa. I want you to take care of her. Right.” Sally took the little girl and Mineko and Quatre went back into the warehouse.

“Oh.” Quatre finally said. “Sorry.”

“No need to be. We’ll find Wufei soon.”

Mineko and Quatre searched the whole building. The only thing they could find was a bunch of bums and a piece of black clothe with gold and red on it, probably from Wufei’s shirt. Mineko smelled it.

“What do you smell?”

“Blood, and Wufei’s cologne. Yes. It is Wufei’s; we’re on the right track.” Mineko and Quatre found a window that looked out onto the ally.

“Heero! Sally!” We found something. Mineko said leaning over the edge of the window. Heero and Sally couldn’t hear her they where to busy talking, or arguing. On or the other, the couldn’t hear her.

“Careful.” Quatre said as he extended a hand to Mineko.

“I’ll be fine. Heero!” Mineko shouted. She lots her balance and fell, but she grabbed onto the window below her. “AIP!!” Mineko yelped. Heero and Sally heard that.

“Mineko!” sally yelled.

“I’m ok! I just slipped. We found something!” Mineko moved her way to the fire escape ladder. She balanced on the guild rail. She managed to get the ladder down.

“HEY!” Someone in the window Mineko was closest to yelled. She was just an old homeless guy. But he scared the living shit out of Mineko.

“Ah!” Mineko slipped and fell. Heero caught her though.

“Mineko!” Quatre called. Mineko closed her eyes, when she opened them; she was staring strait into Heero Prussian blue eyes.

“Uh?” Mineko didn’t know quite what to do. “Th-thanks.”

Quatre let out a sigh of relief.  Heero put Mineko down and started up the ladder.            

“What’s going on over here?” Duo demanded as he came around the corner of the ally.

“Nothing. I fell. We found something.” Duo looked up to see Quatre waving something. They all went up the escape ladder.

When they got into the building, after making sure they where on the same floor as Wufei, they where in what looked like an old office building. It still had a table in it.

They exited the room and met up with Quatre.

“This is what we found.” Heero took the cloth from Quatre.

“Blood.” He said. Duo took it.

“And fresh.” He looked at his and threw the piece of clothe at Sally. The thought of having Duo’s best friends blood on his hand made him mildly ill. “Ew.” He said wiping his hands on his pants.

“Let me see.” Trowa said. They didn’t even realize he had fallowed.

“Eep!” Mineko eeped again. “Don’t do that to me Trowa.

“Sorry.” He said quietly as he took the cloth.

“It also had his cologne.” Mineko said. Trowa examined the black material.

“It was planted to lure us here.”

“Huh?” Everyone looked at Trowa.

“The blood is fresh, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Sally said.

“Wufei was taken a couple of weeks ago. The blood would have been dired long before the night ended. It was freshly put here because whoever took Wufei…”

“Knew we would look for him. Gah!” Mineko yelled she punched a wall. “I should have known. They’re trying to lead us into a trap!” Mineko was furious. Over the past month or so, she’d lost her touch as a Gundam Pilot. Any other time she would have noticed it long ago. But her love for Wufei was blinding her vision to see what was in front of her. If she wanted to find him, she would have to stop loving him. That wasn’t going to be easy, let a lone very possible.

“Mineko?”

“What!?” Mineko turned and shouted at Quatre. “Mineko? Mineko? That’s all I’ve heard from you today Quatre. Everyone shut up after that and they searched the rest of the building in complete silence. Well Mineko did. The others stayed as far away from her as possible.

Meanwhile, while tripping over every thing imaginable, Mineko was having a mental war with herself.

Why? Why do I love him? You know why. Her mind was telling her. No I don’t. I can’t stop loving him, no matter how hard I try. Why? Tell me why! Because everyone needs love. They can’t help it if they fall in love. Love is just something that happens. You know that. Whatever. I don’t even know why I’m listening to you. Because you have no choice. I am your brain. I am you. Stupid fool. Mineko no baka. Mineko sighed. She rested her back against a wall. She checked her watch. It was seven p.m. Mineko sighed again and sat down. She pulled the picture of Wufei out of her pocket.

“Wufei.” She said quietly to herself. Wufei was standing in his usual white pants and purple tank top. He was holding one elbow with one hand and was resting his cheek on his fingertips. He was leaned against a wall. Mineko stared into his eyes. She stared at the picture so long, it almost seemed as if he winked at her. Mineko just put the picture away. Mineko was getting hungry.

Mineko walked around a little more and ran into Heero.

“I think we should go.” He said.

“Yeah.” Mineko looked back a few seconds before fallowing Heero. They soon met up with the others and left.

“So where should we eat?” Duo asked as they all got into the truck.

Mineko was silent, and no one else really had any ideas.

“How about Homers Buffet?” Sally asked as she pointed to a little restaurant. “all you can eat.”

“Sure.” They all agreed to eat there.

The dinner for all six of them only cost about $48, so they got there money’s worth.

Inside, after everyone had gotten there first plate, Mineko’s head popped up.

“Oh yeah!” Mineko nearly shouted. Mineko un-tucked her shirt and out fell a long, black, velvet box fell out. Her hand was waiting and ready to catch it. Heero lifted an eyebrow at the somehow familiar object. Mineko slid it across the table to Duo.

“What’s this?” He asked as he tried to swallow a mouth full of macaroni and cheese. And in the process, he nearly chocked.      

“Open it.” Mineko said as she gestured to the box. Duo did so.

Duo opened box slowly, as if he where expecting something to come out and bite him on the nose. But what he saw made his face lit up. There on an old gold chain, was his golden cross that Father Maxwell had given him. “Thank you1” It took a lot for Duo not to scream it out. His voice was a scream, but at a whisper level. And his voice was hoarse.

“I found it at the old safe house in your room. I didn’t remember until now. I thought it might be of some use to you, and not to your old floor, right?” Duo kind of slouched in his chair. He felt Mineko’s eyes on him. Penetrating his skull.

“Sorry.”

“Well you should take more care of your things than that you know Duo.”

“Um…Mineko.” The others turned to Sally. “What is it that you did while we where apart?” She asked. Mineko looked down at her plate. Trying to remember most of what happened after they all split up, for lack of better words.

“Well, the last day we saw each other, the same day Relena held that ball and you guys forced me to go, and wear that dress…” Mineko glared at Quatre. It was one of his sisters old dresses. “That night, after we had all went out into the back and sat on that swing, after we recalled all those memories. Even the ones of the first time we met, amd how P-ko stayed glued to Duo, but was still over obsessed about Trunks. We where all drunk, yeah, but I don’t think I was all that drunk…” Mineko paused. She laughed to herself. “I remember after we all said out goodbyes and headed off in all different directions. I felt a pull. A strange force in all directions. And then, like a rubber band, it just kind of…snapped. I guess. Yeah,. It snapped. And then I felt kind of lost. As if I had never seen that place before. It was like when I first arrived and found out that there where giant machines capable of mass destruction and there pilots where just as bad.”

“You know.” Quatre spoke up. “I kind of felt that same pull. But I wasn’t quite lost, I guess because I was born here.”

“Yeah. I know what your saying. I just didn’t tell anyone because they’d think I was crazy…er. Than I already am.” Duo finally said as he looked around at everyone.

“Well anyway. I got a little job at a store, got one paycheck and got fired. Sleeping on the job. And they wouldn’t listen to my ‘lame ass excuse’. I spent night after night alone and having the worst insomnia than I had ever had in my life. Sleepless nights. Days without food. I was bored to Death. Not to mention I looked like one.”

“Mineko…you always look like a board.” Duo laughed.

“I know.” Mineko blushed a bit. She didn’t know why, but she did anyways.

Mineko explained everything thing she did, even what she did in the hospital. And all the times she thought of committing suicide. She counted at least five hundred.

“WHAT ?!” Quatre shouted at her. He wanted to stand up Trowa kept him in his seat by putting and hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. His other hand still occupied by the coup of tea he was drinking. But Quatre didn’t stay put. Quatre got up and walked over to Mineko. He took her arms and loomed at her wrists.

There where a few new punk puffy lines running across her clear blue veins. Her skin was a creamy pale, so it was easy to see her veins.

“Geese. I’m fine Quatre.” Mineko pulled from Quatre’s Death grip. If the growth spurt Quatre got did anything more than make him taller, it made him a bit stronger too. Either that or he was working out. Mineko was going for option number one. Quatre didn’t seem like the type to work out.

Quatre sat back down in his seat and returned to eating. But he kept a rather close eye on Mineko. Mineko however, just shrugged and continued t eat. The others where watching them carefully. The rest of the meal was silent, save for Sally getting up to make a phone call. When she returned, they where ready to leave.

“I called and made reservations to a hotel near here. We’ll stay there tonight and go out again tomorrow. The hotel isn’t to far from the site where we’re searching.”

“Right.” Mineko said as she and the other fallowed Sally back to the truck. Trowa and Quatre went back to the back to guard the weapons, and Heero went back to driving. Sally went back to telling him where to go and how to drive and Mineko went back to being a statue, looking out the car window and Duo went back to staring at her.

And I thought we where the suicidal ones, Mineko. You’ve never tried to self detonate your Gundam before. Why choose to die from a physical, self cause wound? Duo finally sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest and resting.

            A few minutes down the road Quatre called from the back of the truck. He stepped into the back seat with Trowa sticking his head out from behind the clothe that divided the back storage space from the back seat.

“Look what we found.” Quatre said as Mineko took the paper. “It was pinned to one of the boxes carrying explosives.

“It says: “So near, yet so far. You’re getting closer, just fallow the nearest star.” “What the Hell?”

Duo took the paper. He rubbed his eyes and then looked at it. “Yep, it’s defiantly a mystery.”

“Jeenkies.” Mineko said with sarcasm.

“Ok gang. Lets check it out.” Sally finally said. Heero had to smirk at the scene going on in the back seat. And just to push it along, Quatre added his own bit of humor.

“Ru-huh. Rot me.” She said in his best Scooby-Doo imitation.

“Not even for a Scooby snack?”

“Well, maybe a Scooby Snack.” They all laughed a bit.