Quatre peered over the edge quickly and took a few steps back. It was a very long way down. "What are we going to do from here?"

Trowa shrugged as he tied the rope in a knot around the door handle. He blinked as he realized that there were two coils of rope. More convenience. "I think we should just leave the quickest way possible."

"Which is straight down."

"Exactly. Haven’t you ever climbed before?"

"With a single rope on a smooth surface? That’s suicide."

"Beautiful day to die then, isn’t it?" Trowa tied the other rope on the other side of the handle.

"That was cliché."

"I don’t really care. You create your own pressure against the surface by using your feet on the surface and your hands on the rope. Loosen your hands and jump off, land, and then repeat. All the way down. Then we get to swim."

"Swim?"

Trowa blinked. "You can’t swim?"

"I can swim fine," Quatre sighed and took hold of one of the ropes, uncoiling it. "In the desert there aren’t that many places to swim. That’s all."

"I’ll go first," Trowa threw his rope over the edge. Not surprisingly it was the perfect length to get to the bottom of the "I". With one last look to Quatre he jumped over the edge. Trowa counted out five seconds while he let the rope slide in his hands, then he tightened his grip and threw all of his weight against the hard surface of the "I". His shoes skid across the smooth glass but in a minute he stopped. He was about fifteen feet down.

From what seemed like far above, Quatre sighed again. "You expect me to do that. Oh well, it was a pleasure knowing you Trowa," and he jumped over the edge.

Surprisingly Quatre landed identically with Trowa. He was easily graceful about it too. He grinned at his companion’s astonished look. "I had my doubts. I still do, but if you can do it there’s absolutely no reason for me not to."

They took turns bouncing down the "I", each boy having a hand near the other’s rope when he was falling, just in case. It went very well, until the two pilots discovered a little problem. The "I" wasn’t at the bottom of the cliff.

They were both at the end of their ropes and the end of the "I", but there was at least another 50 feet to the crashing water below them. Directly under them was an enormous sea cave that the tide was washing into. Quatre had to shout over the noise of the waves. "Could we make it if we jumped?"

"Those waves would smash us into the cave wall," Trowa yelled back. Even he wasn’t going to mess with nature; those waves would definitely kill both of them before they’d have a chance to begin to swim. Trowa felt the rope beginning to burn in his hands. "I didn’t expect this…"

A huge resonating sound interrupted Quatre’s response. All of the sudden a big white triangle sliced it’s way out of the sea cave and through the water below them. It parted the sea easily and grew larger and larger. Larger until the boys could make out several decks, a bar, and a swimming pool. A lot of people in sunscreen and swimsuits stared at the pilots. The ship blew it’s horn again, and no one heard Trowa read out it’s name. "The Inquisitive Integrity…"

The ship was rapidly passing under them but Trowa had just enough time to make out someone very familiar standing on the aft deck. Actually there were two familiar faces, eerily familiar. Quatre saw it too and silently the two boys decided that there was only one option.

Trowa and Quatre released the ropes from their hands and plummeted towards the last deck of the Inquisitive Integrity.

***

Duo Maxwell was only a little surprised to see a pilot named Quatre fall out of the sky onto the deck in front of him. After all, he’d been holding on to a rope on a giant I, and if he’d chosen to fall into the ocean her certainly would have drowned. Who knew if someone who grew up in a dry desert ever learned how to swim?

Trowa followed with a rather sickening thud. Both boys got up though; they dusted themselves off and stared curiously at Duo and Heero. Also the little girl that came wandering up behind them in a navy blue jacket that was much too big for her.

Heero had done an extensive internet search until he uncovered the whereabouts of the ship The Inquisitive Integrity. It was then very easy to book tickets to go for a cruise. Cassandra had constantly insisted that MIND had some extraordinarily secret files hidden at the base. So the boys had decided that the ship was the only logical place to start looking. They also discovered something else about MIND very quickly as a result. "Hey Heero," Duo loved pointing out the obvious sometimes, it annoyed people so much. "Look at that big sign over there, I think we found our base."

The letters M, I, N, and D dominated the cliff they were rapidly distancing. "Really," Trowa ran a hand through his flyaway hair. "I didn’t think I was knocked out and prisoner at their base. It was too dark to tell."

"Wow," Duo commented to Quatre. "Sarcasm from Trowa. Something must have really, really ticked him off."

Trowa ignored this and turned his attention to Cassandra. "Who’s she?"

Cassandra politely introduced herself. She pointed to the base. "See, I told you that I could show you where it was! Now as for the files on the Missy Aye-aye…hmmm…well I know I have one…and then you all have one…now were did Moiya say he’d put them…"

Heero explained who Cassandra was and the importance she might have to their mission. "…I was alerted when your laptop was destroyed, so I found Duo before they got him. We’re dealing with a very strange enemy here-…what’s that on your hand?"

"What?" Trowa blinked.

Heero pointed to Trowa’s palm. "Your hand. You’re bleeding."

Trowa looked at his hand, and sure enough a small sliver of blood was flowing out of it. Quatre lifted his hand and saw the same thing. "It’s just something from when we were climbing down."

"No. That would have left a different mark. Besides, it looks like you just opened an already sealed wound."

Trowa blinked. "That would mean that I would have had to have gotten it from…when I was in the cell…"

Cassandra dismissed the boys’ grave looks. "Oh don’t be such sissies. They take my blood all the time from my palm, it’s just to see how your powers are interacting with your system."

"But we don’t have powers, sorry Cassie," Duo shrugged.

"Oh yes you do!" she exclaimed in a singsong voice. "Anyone who can fly the big weapon things has powers."

"Big weapon things?"

"Don’t be meanies, you’ve flown them all the time. You won a big war or something with them, according to Moiya at least. He got mad at you over that."

"You mean gundams?" Duo felt his stomach drop to his shoes.

"Yeah, anything like that."

"Any mobile suit?"

"Yes," Cassandra clarified herself. "Anyone that flies a mobile suit has to have telekinesis. It’s just the way everything is. They have to have it or they’d die. Absolutely have to."