"I want to thank you." Sally said as Wufei descended to the ground. The boy's face was hard to read it reminded her of Heero's. She'd met Heero a couple months ago when Relena Darlian had brought him to her hospital for treatment. He'd promptly escaped. Staring at this other pilot, she wondered if all the Gundam pilots were as grim as those two were.

"You shouldn't have been fighting." He said. "You had no mobile suits and no chance at winning. You are not strong enough to go against them." Sally snorted.

"That doesn't matter. What does is that we fight."

"She's right." Came a voice. The second Gundam's pilot appeared. He was taller than the first and appeared more approachable. "What matters is that they fight the oppressing ruler. Strength comes from many places." Veir crossed his arms and glared at Wufei. He was about ready to strangle the other pilot because of his melancholy mood of late. I'm not worthy to fly my ass, Veir growled. "Hello, I'm Veir." He said bowing politely. Sally smiled.

"Sally Po."

"A pleasure to meet you. May I ask what got them so ticked at you?"

"We stole some of their finest." A tall broad man with a huge grin said. Veir arched one eyebrow.

"And for that they shot at you?" he smirked. "Maybe you should try stealing something other than their finest Bordeaux." The man laughed.

"You might be right." Sally chuckled as the pilot and the man exchanged quips. She offered an invitation to the pilots to stay at the rebels' camp for a few days. Veir pondered for a moment, assessed the group and agreed readily. Wufei simply nodded. A couple of the men hoped they'd both stay as they could use the firepower. Sally doubted it. They still had a mission to fulfill.

The next morning Sally drove into one of the villages with Wufei. Veir had decided to stay at camp and see if he could be of any use. The streets were made of dirt turned mud thanks to the early morning rain. The buildings looked as if they'd seen better days. Sally kept up a rolling conversation or at least tried to with the young Gundam pilot. His answers, when they came, were harsh and full of injured pride.

Despite he and Veir's small string of rampages through OZ bases, Wufei still felt as if he were unworthy to fly Shenlong. He had almost not gone on the mission to rescue Dr. Em, but Master O had insisted. Wufei felt that refusing the scientist would be more dishonorable than his injured pride at the time. Besides, Nataku would never have let him bow out of a mission like that. She would have cursed him for being stubborn and gone off on her own. If she were still alive. Suddenly Wufei didn't want to think about his betrothed. It had been she who should have been the pilot of Shenlong, she was the warrior not him. But Meiran, his dear Nataku was dead and he'd taken up the fight in her stead.

The shattering of glass brought him out of his melancholy just in time to watch Sally leap out of her jeep and defend a man whom two enemy soldiers were beating. His eyes narrowed as he watched the woman with twin braids take on the soldiers.

Sally dodged the first strike, but not the second. The second soldier was faster than she had thought, but she just couldn't let them pick on the shopkeeper like that. Who did those soldiers think they were? They didn't pay for anything and they enjoyed destroying people. They had to go! She struggled to free herself from their grasp. Wufei leapt out of the jeep and disarmed the first man, freeing Sally from his grasp. His martial arts skills were excellent and the soldier's were not. Wufei soon had him on the ground at Sally's feet. By that time the rest of the town had gathered, pitchforks in hand, to drive out the unwanted soldiers. Sally glared down at the soldiers currently lying in the mud.

"You better leave. You're not welcome here." She told them with authority.

"We'll be back." Growled one. He scrambled up, grabbed his friend and left. Sally smiled and turned to Wufei.

"I guess I get to thank you again."

"Onna, you shouldn't fight."

"Why? Because I'm weak? Weakness is what makes us strong. People sympathize with our cause and join." Wufei sighed. He was weak, but this woman was not. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to admit it out loud. She risked her life for others despite the odds; Meiran would have liked her. Wufei wandered toward the river where a boat was tied up. Stepping in, he untied it and set it adrift. He could still hear Sally, but he wasn't listening anymore. His own inner thoughts had taken precedent.

"What are you doing?" Sally called. "Wufei!"

"I'm not worthy to pilot Nataku."

"That isn't an answer. Is it that necessary that you feel you must be worthy before you do what is right? Flying the Gundam and defending your colonies is right. Justice that is what this is all about. Finding your own sense of justice and acting on it. Isn't that what the Gundam was built for? To bring the Federation to justice?" Wufei didn't answer her.

Sally watched him disappear. She sighed, then turned back to her jeep. She was beginning to understand that he had some unresolved issues and prayed he'd be safe. Something told her though that his partner was going to be mad when he found out about this unexpected river voyage.

Everything was ready. Trowa was ready. Taking a deep breath he waited as the ringmaster announced the surprise. The OZ soldiers cheered and howled when the cover was pulled away revealing Heavyarms to the world.

"Time to begin." He told himself as he raised the gattling gun and shot a huge hole in the tent. The crowd scattered.

"God it's real!" someone yelled.

"Run!"

"Alert the commander!"

"Scramble the mobile suits!"

Trowa headed for the Taurus transports with a single goal in mind. Destroy them then self-destruct.

"Trowa." Catherine breathed as she stared up at Heavyarms. "What are you doing?" The Gundam began to move off leaving a wake of chaos behind it. Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered the report of what had happened to one Gundam pilot. "No, you won't do that. You can't do that." Heavyarms was moving towards the transports. Grasping at what strength she had, Catherine took off after Trowa. "I can't let him do that. I can't. He's like family. He is family. The only family I have left. I won't let him do this to the circus. I won't let him do this to me!" She choked back a sob and pressed onwards through the herd of retreating bodies.

The Gundam moved faster than she could run. It's long strides halted only when it came to its intended target.

Trowa took a deep breath and did as he was supposed to. Destroy OZ. The transports erupted into flame as their fuel tanks exploded. Catherine was nearly blown down from the force of the shock wave. The heat burned her, but left no visible mark. The OZ mobile suits were coming. She could hear them begin to return fire at Heavyarms.

"TROWA!" she screamed. "TROWA!"

"Catherine?" Trowa could have sworn he'd heard her voice. What was she doing here? She should have been with everyone else near the wrecked big top.

"Trowa! Answer me! What are you doing?" Trowa swung Heavyarms around so that he faced her. She was there, he couldn't believe it. Catherine stood as fire erupted from the spilt fuel. It leapt high into the air causing her to become silhouetted in its light. Trowa could see a Leo aiming its beam cannon at her out of the corner of his eye. NO! He threw Heavyarms between Catherine and the Leo, shielding the girl from the deadly blast. She stared up at him in shock. Kneeling his Gundam down, Trowa opened the cockpit.

"Catherine." He said. "Get back."

"Why!" she demanded approaching the mobile suit. "What were you thinking? You put everyone in danger!"

"I have to complete my mission. Then I'll self-destruct."

"WHAT!" Catherine grew pale. Then anger took the place of fear and she stalked forward. Climbing up into the cockpit with him, Catherine brought her hand back. It connected with the full force of her rage. "How dare you! Self-destructing won't accomplish anything! What about the rest of us? What about me! You think that this will solve the conflict of your colonies, well it won't! Fighting never accomplishes anything but bloodshed."

Gingerly Trowa touched the sore spot on his cheek where Catherine had struck him. His eyes focused on her. She was shaking and attempting to keep back tears that were threatening to burst forth. She cared about him, Trowa realized. He couldn't remember the last person who had cared anything about him.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I won't do it." Relief swept across her face. He had given her his word and she trusted him. Catherine threw arms around him and hugged him tightly. "You better get out. There are still mobile suits coming." Catherine nodded and released him. She climbed down and ran back to the big top. Heavyarms turned towards the oncoming OZ units and prepared for retaliation. He would not lose, nor would he die. He'd promised Catherine. It looked like that he, like Heero, was destined to fail in his mission. Trowa smiled; maybe he hadn't been as prepared to die as he'd thought he'd been. Arigato, Catherine.

"Jeden. If you were stranded on a deserted island and only had the supplies that you kept in Anubis," San's deadpan voice asked as Jeden tried to think. "Plus there were OZ mobile suits flying routine patrols above the island, so there was no chance you could escape without exposing yourself."

"San, where is this going?" Jeden asked in a bored tone. San put the binoculars he'd been using to watch the skies down.

"Would you still have eaten the chocolate bars first or would you have waited?"

"Eaten them first. The chocolate would have melted in this weather. Now come on down and let's go swimming. We're not getting out of here anytime soon. Stupid OZ war games."

San shrugged and climbed down from the rock he'd been perched on.

"Next time we get stranded on a deserted tropical island remind me to bring proper swim trunks. I hate using my boxers."

"Hai, Jeden."