The pyramids of Giza were old and crumbling, great awe inspiring monuments that had lasted decades, of course, but still finally ebbing towards the test of time. That's why the idea that someone had to have the conference in them was so brilliant, they would be building a big conference center in the middle of no where for convenience to the people involved, and preserving a monument of unknown age. Quatre was the only one not too terribly thrilled with their idea.

"Wow," Duo looked out the window as the plane flew over the construction site. "Damn Quat, what are they doing?"

"Putting glass panes over the pyramids."

"What?!"

"Putting glass panes over them. So they won't be susceptible to the elements anymore. They've lasted this long, now they'll last for eternity…"

Duo laughed. "You sound thrilled."

Quatre turned to him and realized that it wasn't meant to be offending. "Well…they're going to build the room right in between the two largest ones. It'll be a great spot to sign a treaty, what with such a beautiful back drop and all."

"So than what's the problem?"

"It's dangerous. MIND's declaring war, remember? What if they bring a mobile suit just for effect? One shot would bring this delicate glass down on the pyramids and the treaty…falling glass isn't fun you know."

"Ouchies…" Duo blinked. "Well come on though, they weren't building this anticipating another war like we are. Like we always are I mean. They want a beautiful place to sign towards piece and there's no reason why they won't get it without conflict."

"Gotta mobile suit to fight them with?"

"No…but I'm sure we could think of something. Man, you're depressing me…relax and forget about it…" Duo looked out the window again and ignored Quatre.

Heero was on the other side of the blond Arabian listening to the conversation out the side of his ear. He was busy with his usual laptop work, but paused to turn to Quatre. "You shouldn't worry about it. They're calling the Preventers, and like it or not there will be mobile suits patrolling the place. Not when anyone can see them, just when we're all staring benignly at that piece of paper. We are always prepared for conflict, even when everyone else isn't. The government isn't made up completely of idealists, that's what the Preventers are paid for you know."

"Right," Quatre perked up, but just for a moment. "I'd forgotten about that."

"MIND doesn't want to start a war, it isn't in their best interests. And they know that the gundams are completely off limits for an event like this. Everyone does."

"Of course they know that…" Quatre sighed. "That's not really what I was worried about. But let's just drop it anyway."

"Fine."

Cassandra grinned extremely mischievously and poked Heero in the side. "There's your girlfriend. Now why don't you give us a good show and go run up and hug her?"

Relena Dorlian was careful to look at the ground during this comment. The pilots and company had just gotten off the plane and were being met by a big group of politicians. Relena was at the head and trying to be professional by not letting the joy of seeing her friends again show. Cassandra was ruining it for them.

"Come on, Mr. Heero, what kind of guy are you? I'm sure she could do much better, you don't even have emotions," Cassie crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Eww, I just had a mental image, how far could you two possibly get if one of you had no emotions? That would have to be like the worst sex ever-"

"That's it," Heero was attempting to be very professional, he really was trying. He hid the gun he'd pulled out on Cassandra from any of the politicians' view.

Duo wasn't smiling. He grabbed Cassie's shoulders and bent to her eye level. "Hey there, now harassing us is just fine, it's cool, you've got some great material. But there's a time and place for everything, and now is like the worst time possible. Really, you're gonna get yourself killed."

Cassandra pushed him away. She ran out in front of the politicians and waved. "Tee hee, it's so easy, they can't control me at all!"

"Duo!" Heero snapped at his friend. "Why is she doing this? Usually she's really mature, make her act her age!"

"Heero, buddy…I think that is her age."

"You're not the boss of me!" Cassandra sang, she ran in between the group of very embarrassed adults and around towards the other side of the airport. "Not my boss, nah nah, not my boss…"

The poor pilots just watched in horror as the usually serene girl turned insane was dancing and jumping around the airport, and as the politicians watched her every move. Heero was about to go and forcibly stop her when it all suddenly made sense.

Behind the pilots and the plane they had just gotten off of there came a large slamming sound. The politicians didn't notice it because of Cassandra carrying on, but the pilots and Relena, who had come over to try and calm Heero down, did. They noticed it in a very big way. A giant green Leo realized that it was in sight and immediately started tromping around behind the airport. Out of the corner of her eye and between a breath in her act Cassandra glared pointedly at the pilots. Relena stared listlessly at the mobile suit. "Oh my…what's one of those doing here? No one can see that, get it out of here!"

But the pilot in the Leo was very smart, in a few more seconds it was out of sight. Cassandra was running out of childish behavior to entertain the politicians with. She suddenly stood up straight. "My, that was tiring. How are you all this morning? And don't worry, that won't happen again, although I'll be here all week for autographs!"

Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre and especially Wufei stared blankly as the politicians were very professional, the group courteously introduced themselves and left the pilots to handling Cassandra.

She grinned at the pilots and Relena, who was still standing there after her entourage had left. "You bakas are lucky I felt that coming."

"Felt it?"

"Yes, telekinetically mobile suits are very loud indeed. No one, save Mr. Heero's girlfriend here is mature and ready to see a mobile suit again. I hope you're happy, I hate acting my age, but a distraction was the only thing that would save you at the moment."

Wufei blinked. "I cannot believe I'm related to her."

"Heero?" Relena grasped his arm. "What are mobile suits doing here?"

Wufei kept his face nondescript. "The Preventers are here. Ms. Dorlian, I know you won't approve but with such an important event we have to be careful. Just in case, although I'll make sure that never happens again."

Cassandra went up to Relena and bowed very politely. "I'm very sorry about the comments before. I'm sure you and Heero are very close-"

"Cassie? One last warning there, gorgeous. Time and place, 'member?"

"Oh. So anyway, I was just trying not to blow our cover, because certain boys don't know what they're doing. Forgive me?"

"Of course," Relena returned the bow with a smile. "So what's your name?"

"Chang Cassandra."

"Excuse me? Chang Cassandra? As in-"

"Exactly how it sounds. This is Wufei, my brother."

Relena and Wufei exchanged a look. Relena shrugged and turned back to Cassie. "Well, you'll have to excuse me for such a rude question, but why are you here?"

Quatre sighed. "There is some stuff going on that we haven't let you in on. We'll explain later, I promise. Just not in public, we don't want to worry anyone."

"Worry?" Relena echoed, the polite look being replaced by confusion. "What's to be worried about?"

"You'll see. Nothing terribly bad, just some issues friends of Cassie have to work out."

"I don't think I understand-"

"Yeah," Duo grinned. "The sad thing is, neither do we really."

***

Idauyu smiled to himself as he climbed into Wing Zero. It was a perfect morning for piloting, and he felt like having a nice, meaningful conversation with his old friend. Once in the cockpit his hands felt around for the controls, and he donned a pair of sunglasses, it didn't do anything since he was blind, but it was just fun to make people more aware of his handicap. He could fly better than any of them crippled than they could in top condition.

He felt around until he found the helmet and his salvation. People thought being blind was horrible, but Idauyu had at least one advantage over everyone, and that was the ZERO system, and the fact that Wing had better eyes than any human possessed. He couldn't see, but as long as he wore the helmet Wing transmitted all of the vital information right into his brain, he could pilot the suit fine without it, but it was very helpful. Wing talked straight into his mind; the gundam had a very odd personality. It was trying to copy a human mind, more specifically a personality of someone that had piloted the suit before. Although the gundam was destroyed after the Mariemaia incident, the computer containing the ZERO system was intact in the gundam's head, so all of ZERO's memory of it's last pilot was intact too. Idauyu had heard of the boy named Heero Yuy, and had done extensive research on him, but with ZERO Idauyu could tell everything about the lonely boy who had piloted the gundam before him.

Idauyu was vaguely aware of all of the systems powering up. He clicked on everything appropriate for a proper launch, folded his arms and sat back in the seat. "Hello, Wing."

Hello.

"How are you?"

All systems normally functioning.

Idauyu smirked. "No, no. I know that all systems are functioning, I'm asking you how you are. How you, personally, are feeling. So how are you feeling?"

I don't understand. Feel?

The pilot just smirked. "Never mind. We'll work on that later."

It had taken the gundam weeks to just recognize the fact that there was an "I" at all. The computer that Idauyu had started working with barely had specs of intelligence left over from the files it had downloaded to copy Heero's brain patterns. It really was a much smarter machine than anyone realized, but Idauyu certainly wasn't telling anytime soon. Slowly over his training he'd taught the gundam to recognize itself as an individual being with a consciousness and memory. And although he occasionally mentioned the fact that Wing talked to him, everyone just dismissed it as nonsense. So, as long as it was nonsense neither pilot nor gundam was in danger, Idauyu intended to keep it exactly that way.

"Wing. Before we go train lets have a lesson. I want you to access a memory."

Memory?

"Yes, memory. One of the original copied files. They are called memories, you know that."

Accessing.

"Good. Now what do you see?"

Battle. Opening screen.

A freeze frame of many different screens popped up on the visual system. Through the helmet Idauyu heard the sound and nodded to himself. This would be useful. "Okay. Now what do you see on the screens?"

Fifty Virgos. Mobile dolls, twenty damaged, fourteen preparing to fire, ten on me and four in a different direction.

"Very good. But there's something else I want you to notice."

New screen. One human.

"Yes, exactly. One human, why don't you identify the human."

There was a pause. Male adolescent. Aged sixteen years, nine months, three days and five hours. Gundam pilot.

"What's his name?"

More memory needed.

"Well go ahead and access it then, you don't need to tell me."

Maxwell. Duo Maxwell.

"Yes, you're absolutely right. Guess what?"

No response computable.

"We have a lot of work to do. Nah, just kidding. But anyway, Duo is going to be joining us for a little while. If you feel up to it I might even let him help you fly. Now I want you to look at the expression on his face. Identify that emotion, please."

'Emotion' does not compute. I don't understand, the word 'emotion' is analogous with 'feel'. I don't understand.

"Wing. You're an idiot. This isn't that hard, identify the emotion."

I don't understand.

"Wing, I don't care. Just do it."

I don't understand.

"Wing. Do it now."

I…do not…understand. Do. Not. Understand.

Idauyu sent his mind in an exercise to calm the computer down. "Well you're about to. Of course you don't understand, I know that. But look at Duo's face. Do you see the expression? The way his face is contorted?"

Yes.

"Good. And when I was pressing you for an answer, certain sequences went off in your mainframe, am I right?"

Yes.

"Okay. Well the emotion he feels in the picture and the emotion you felt just now are the same. It's called annoyance. You were annoyed at me for being rude. That's how a human looks when he or she is annoyed. Do you understand?"

Computing.

"Yes, think about it all you like."

Understanding confirmed. Copying files into permanent memory.

"So from now on whenever you see someone's face like that, or when I behave in a manner that you don't like, what do you say?"

Annoyance.

"You say something. You, Wing. You use something different when you want to say something about yourself."

Annoyance. I am…I am annoyed.

"Right. There's a reason you're the smartest computer in the world. So when you're annoyed you'll tell me, right?"

I experience none of this 'emotion'. I won't ever be annoyed.

"But we just went over the fact that certain synapses can be identified as-…never mind. We'll work it out later, that's all Heero's influence on you. Let's go blow some stuff up."

Computing. Your voice. Is that the voice patterns of annoyance?

Idauyu laughed. "Exactly. You see? You're learning."

Neither of us see.

"Not literally. Power up complete. After you, Wing."

Computing-

"There's nothing to compute you dumb computer. Just take us out of here."

Idauyu. I am annoyed.

"Good. Be annoyed outside of the hangar."