"I just think you have a really vague idea of what this might actually mean for me…" Duo looked up and managed a distant smile. It was fake though, and he wasn't interested in keeping the usual cheerful masquerade for anyone at the moment.

"Well you're absolutely right," Heero reasoned evenly. "I was probably wrong to push you into this. It wouldn't be new."

"What wouldn't be new? You pushing me into something?"

"Sure, but also me being wrong."

Duo blinked. "Heero, you're the perfect soldier, you can't ever doubt yourself. That's for people like me."

"I was the perfect soldier, according to all of you," Heero's voice tinted with the slightest bit of anger. "But those days are over and hopefully never coming back. I have a lot to learn about this 'having a personality' thing. You know more there than I think I ever will. I want to know whether I'm really pushing you into something or not."

"Will it make you change your mind?"

"No, but it still matters."

Duo sighed. "Okay, fine. It's really not that big of a deal. I just thought that…well never mind, it was a stupid dream anyway. I thought it was really over, ya know? Like the war was over and we'd be done feeling guilty, done feeling horrible and doing things that would give us nightmares for years. I want it to end, Heero, but maybe for us it was never meant to and never will. It's just…never mind. Really, there's no benefit to me telling you."

Heero rolled his eyes. "You started, now you had better finish."

"Damn, you just always have to have your way, don't you? There's a breaking point Heero, in everyone's mind…a point where it just all gets to be too much. I've gotten near it a lot but never cracked. What if I crack now? So much depends on this…the ending depends on this, Heero. If I crack than someone else will just replace me and crack, and then someone else, it will go on forever. That would be hell on Earth, Heero."

"I know, and it's not going to happen. I don't think your friend Moiya will let it happen. He's too set in his ways to back down now. He's like me, you were right."

"If you say so," Duo looked up and folded his arms to mirror Heero. "I really don't know what I'm going to do at MIND though. Sit around and watch other people fly the gundams?"

"Meet the other people that they think can fly them better than us. No such man…or woman exists alive today."

"Modest, aren't you."

"It's the truth and no one will dispute us, Duo. You don't know how useful this will be. As a friend I'm asking you to do this for me."

Duo looked up and stared at the perfect soldier. "What? Friend? Would you repeat that?"

Heero glared. "Don't push it. That sentence was a one time occurrence not to be repeated."

"Just so I can get it down on paper. Can I quote you maybe?"

"Don't. Push. It."

Duo grinned, and this time it was very authentic. "I won't. That's all you had to say, buddy."

"I should have known that."

"Heh, nope, that falls under the category of having a personality. You're still working on basic emotional responses. Don't worry, you'll get it eventually."

***

There was one boy left in the huge MIND hangar staring at Wing Zero listlessly. He was leaning against a railing with his knees to his chest, regarding the gundam as an old friend of sorts, someone who was the silent type, always there at all the parties and events, just never talking back. Not unless you wore the special helmet that hooked up to all of the computer systems. Then the gundam talked to you, it told you everything and you didn't have to answer back at all. It became a part of your mind, and then you realized what a powerful friend it really was. What was the helmet called again? The boy couldn't quite place it…

"Idauyu! What are you still doing up there?" Mishii Tomoyo called from a few floors below to the boy. "It's two AM for sanity's sake, you really are as dense as you look. And so damn quiet! I thought the hangar was empty!"

"Best not to be seen or heard," Idauyu Zennello muttered, absently wondering if Mishii was anywhere near accurate with the time. For once she actually happened to be.

"Well, of course, but that's for combat. Are you finally studying all of those books I gave you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. Hey Mishii, what's it called again?"

"What's what called?"

"The helmet. The one where I can listen to Wing."

Mishii paused. "Oh…the ZERO system. By the way, how do you like it? Does it help you fly Wing Zero any better?"

"It lets me listen to what Wing wants to do, of course it helps me fly better."

Mishii blinked. "You're talking like that machine is a real person."

"Well why can't it be? Wing is the first real friend I've had in a long time. A very long time in fact."

Mishii shrugged and turned to go out the door. "If you think it helps you, I'm not going to interfere with the best pilot in the world. Do what you want."

"Right," Idauyu waited for the sound of her leaving. He was a short, rather thin boy with a strong build to make up for his height. He had just past what he assumed to be his fifteenth birthday, although only Mishii and Moiya knew his real birthday, they had just said that he was fifteen, so who's not to believe them? He had messy, disheveled dirty blond hair and unnaturally icy blue eyes. His hands were strong and very large, built for doing lots of odd tasks. He stared up at Wing Zero. "Hello, how are you?"

There was no response.

"Thought so. I'm not too great myself. We'll feel better flying later though. I think I have to go get some sleep before then. I'll be back in a few hours."

Mishii had come up to Idauyu's floor. "You can't be talking to it."

"And what if I am?"

"You expect it to talk back?"

"Of course. Only with the helmet though."

"Right," Mishii came over and tousled the boy's hair. "You are an odd one. How can you just sit in front of it like this though? Isn't it-"

"Very easy. Wing's presence is very obvious. Lots of echoes, and I can hear the creaking metal."

"Okay…why don't you go to bed and stop sitting here trying to paint a mental picture?"

"Fine," Idauyu got up. He walked towards the door and was gone before Mishii could take the comment back.

The female leader of MIND was still in disbelief of the boy called Idauyu. He was an excellent student although where his supreme piloting skills came from was a mystery to everyone. For even though he had never failed to pass any test with a score of over one hundred percent, there was one mystery that remained to be solved. None of Idauyu's skills came from his empty icy blue eyes; the boy was completely blind from the day he was born.

***

Cassandra grinned and moved a chess piece across the board. "I think I've just about won this one."

Trowa Barton returned the smile with his usual carefully blank stare that he wore whenever in any sort of conflict. He thought for a moment and moved his queen. "What makes you think that?"

"I have an infallible strategy," she laughed, "and besides, I'm already beating you horribly."

The game did in fact look like Trowa was going to suffer a grievous defeat, he had only his king, queen, two pawns and a lone black bishop; and all that he had managed to deprive Wufei's little sister of was a single castle in what she swore was a stupid error. The game had lasted for over two hours and Trowa had been losing from stage one, but the silent emerald eyed boy was far from admitting defeat, in fact the way he was playing one would simply assume he was quietly impressed with such an interesting game.

"In MIND one of the tests you had to pass to pilot a gundam is to play a perfect chess game, as in to win without loosing a single piece," Cassandra explained as she moved another piece. She was lining up one final assault on Trowa's meager defenses. "It's supposed to simulate battle situations. If you can win at chess you can win a battle; most real battles are far less complex anyway. I passed playing against Moiya himself."

"He's a good chess player?" Trowa moved his queen in front of his king, as a last sacrificial defense.

"That was stupid," Cassandra took the queen and put Trowa in check. "And yes, Moiya is an excellent chess player."

"How many tests do you have to pass to fly a gundam?" Trowa asked curiously, not bothering to move right way.

"At least fifty, but some are really easy, like just meeting the physical requirements," Cassandra politely waited her opponent to admit losing. "I almost was too young, they said my reaction time wasn't developed as much as it could have been if I were older. I showed them though."

"How?"

"I beat the quickest reaction time of people three times my age on a test of Epyon. I was faster than Zechs Merquise ever could be."

Trowa gave the little girl a long look. His eyes fell to the chessboard. "And you think just because you can fly it better that you're a better pilot?"

"Why not?" she winked. "Just move so I can end this please."

Trowa nodded and moved his bishop. "Check mate."

"What??!" Cassandra blinked, utterly incredulous at the fact that she had been beaten. But it was there as simple as anything, Cassandra's king hadn't moved one space since the beginning of the game and was boxed in a corner. There was nothing she could of done but stare at it. "How did you…"

"You think too much of yourself and have too little experience to back it up," Trowa stated quite blatantly. "You're a very talented person, but don't think that that fact alone gives you permission to be superior to anyone. Pay attention to what other people teach you."

Cassandra sighed and started to telekinetically reset the board, using her mind instead of her hands to move all of the pieces. "Fine then, I'm a mite over confident…it's better than always doubting your own strength like my brother. If he spent half as much time thinking as he does wallowing in self pity the war would have been over in half the time."

"Maybe so," Trowa stood up. He looked around the hotel room; no one was in the main living part of the suite at the moment. "I think we're going to be leaving soon. If you want to come that is."

"Sure!" Cassandra exclaimed quickly. "Where are we headed?"

"To Egypt, Quatre has some friends called the Mauganacs that have a base in Giza. We're going to go there, talk to some people and reconsider our options. Duo is going to leave for MIND right after the conference starts. You're going back with him."

"Oh…" Cassandra seemed to suddenly decrease drastically in age. "I'm sorry. Where I come from we're trained to be over confident…"

"Don't worry about it," Trowa folded his arms. "Maybe I just know too much anyway…"