The conversation was very short and to the point. Mishii didn’t agree with what her brother had told her to do, but it was all for a greater good in both their minds anyway. "Here are your orders," Mishii continued, "sometime tonight I want you to open the hatches in the training room downstairs…yes, I know that no one is training on this voyage. I want you to leave the hatches open…yes, it will flood the lower decks, I want it to flood everything…we’re planning to sink the ship…why? Because then there is zero risk that our security will be in question. Don’t worry about it; the hatches are so small that the ship will sink incredibly slowly. Everyone will have time to get off and be on shore by then…"

There was numerous excuses and protests from the other side of the line. Mishii giggled, a sign that she was very tired of listening. "No one will be hurt. Even our stowaways will get off. The point is, in fact, that they get off as quick as possible. Do whatever you can to make that happen, that’s an order…I don’t care how much money it’s going to cost us, the security risk is too great…good. Bye."

Mishii clicked the phone shut and looked out on the sunset again. She sighed very softly. She wondered whether Moiya had gotten to the colony yet. The sun was only a few slivers of light from disappearing. Despite her mood Mishii smiled to herself. Tonight was going to be a fun night indeed.

***

"Mr. Trowa!!!" came the vehement exclamation from little Cassandra. "That dress is pink!"

Trowa Barton was quite confused by this outburst; didn’t little girls like the color pink? He held out the dress to her. "What’s wrong with this?" he decided to try a tad of manipulation, "I think it would look very good on you."

"Pink is for wussies, like your friend over there."

From across the store Quatre snapped around at the comment. "I am not a…a…"

"Don’t even bother," Trowa shook his head at the blond boy and turned back to Cassandra. He had thought that helping her find some real clothes in a store of the ship was a very considerate thing to do. After all, had Heero or Duo thought of it? Trowa was realizing very quickly that this little friend of the other pilots had a serious attitude. Trowa wondered why Heero hadn’t gotten rid of her yet in the back of his head. "Do you want me to get another color?"

"Yes. The blue one is very cool lookin’."

"It’s an interesting choice for someone your age," Trowa handed the girl the blue dress and went to go vent to Quatre. "I think I see why Heero said we were doing him a favor. She’s very…spirited…"

"Well," Quatre shrugged. "I suppose that’s good for someone in her situation. She’s an orphan, just like most of you were, and she knows how to take care of herself. Very productive if you ask me."

"If you say so. Will you take a shift watching her?"

"Tired already? I guess so," Quatre nodded and Trowa headed for the deck outside. He waved to Cassandra but didn’t bother to answer her questioning look as he passed. Heero and Duo were sitting on the deck discussing plans to explore the restricted parts of the ship, of which there were suspiciously many for a luxury liner. Trowa mentally relished the fact that Heero and even to some extent Duo seemed to feel incredibly out of place. Just like him.

"There are eight decks on this ship," Heero was recording things on his laptop. "Eight decks lettered from A-H. Anything below deck D is restricted, I took a walk around before and saw that for myself."

"So that’s where are our files are, right?" Duo was lounging in a deck chair and trying to look like he was totally comfortable in the environment around all of them. None of the boys were very used to places of high luxury, especially the way the people who were enjoying it took it for granted. Duo felt extraordinarily out of place. But he was always the stealthy one, best to keep up appearances.

"Most likely," Trowa pulled up a deck chair to join them. "But it’s a big ship, how are we supposed to find one file cabinet?"

"By splitting up," Duo stood up. "I’ll take deck H. Trowa can get G, Heero can get F, Quatre will look around E, and Cassie can just chill by the pool. We use the quietest method possible to get in. First person to find something interesting reports back here. Okay?"

"Good," Heero seemed to like Duo’s idea enough to stand up and shut his laptop. "Let’s get this over with as quickly as possible."

Duo smirked. "You don’t like the festive atmosphere?"

"No. I might even ask you to steal a lifeboat, just so we can get off this thing as quickly as possible."

***

It wasn’t hard at all to get to deck F. Heero just told the guard that he was a mechanic and walked right by him to a staircase beyond the restricted boundaries. The guard didn’t even think of protesting. Heero couldn’t fathom worse security, maybe it was because he was carrying a laptop and looked professional. Or maybe it was because he was visibly armed, meaning he had a weapons license. People were sometimes automatically intimidated by that. Or maybe it was just because he was a kid, and kids, no matter how odd looking, seemed eternally harmless in the minds of certain adults.

Heero noticed an immediate difference in the hallway he was walking down. The upper decks had been painted themed colors and had a very aesthetic appeal to them. The hallway down here was starkly white washed and very intimidating. Noise traveled easily, leading Heero to make his footsteps very soft and listen for others. Sure enough he heard another person somewhere close to him. The slightly paranoid boy decided to check it out before exploring on.

Someone was exercising in a large room with an open door ahead of Heero. And they weren’t being quiet about it either; whoever this was intended on being loud. He was obviously practicing the martial arts, and Heero only needed one guess as his strides quickened to investigate. Heero was right, and Chang Wufei landed an artfully executed high kick as he rounded the doorframe.

Wufei stopped for only a second to acknowledge Heero’s arrival. "Certainly took you long enough."

"You were loud enough to hear from two decks above," Heero responded with the kind of greeting he’d gotten. "What are you doing here?"

"I’m practicing."

"Right," Heero leaned back against the wall, anticipating a struggling conversation. "Wufei, I think you have a very good idea of what’s going on here. Why don’t you share the info?"

"Can’t," Wufei whipped around with another kick. "Not now at least. We should talk some place where they aren’t listening."

"Who’s ‘they’? I know you know that."

"They…" Wufei paused for a moment. "They…are old friends of my family. Very honorable."

Heero blinked, unsure of how to take this. Wufei never mentioned his family, besides for researching it on the web Heero didn’t know anything about the subject. "They work for MIND?"

"They are MIND. Moiya and Mishii Tomoyo. They run the organization. They have for a very long time now," Wufei launched into his exercises again. "They want us dead you know. Even me."

"Really…why?"

"Can’t tell," Wufei sliced a punch into thin air, "They’re two connected with the Long clan. Can’t reveal any secrets, very dishonorable."

"Wufei-"

Heero was stopped dead by a punch that sliced the air inches from his head. Had it made contact Heero would have been out cold for hours. Wufei’s onyx eyes were burning. "I can’t tell you. Not here, especially not now. Figure it out for yourself Yuy."

Instinctively Heero recognized the look on his face and decided he was right. "Fine. You’re not going to help us at all."

Wufei folded his arms. "Don’t be a baka, it’s not like I agree with their plan…but you need to figure it out for yourself. I’ll meet you on A deck later tonight when they’re evacuating."

"When they’re what?!"

"You’ll see," Wufei went back to such an in depth session of training that Heero shrugged and left. The perfect soldier decided to go back up to the others and tell them what Wufei hadn’t told anyone. Heero needed a good internet search on his laptop to feel better.

***

Duo was having a lot of luck getting into the very bottom deck of the ship, just not a lot of luck getting around it. The hallways were white washed and surprisingly tight, if he’d been claustrophobic this hallway would have been a definite problem. In some places Duo could barely move. There was a door at the end of the hallway he’d been exploring and it was open, Duo figured that it was as good as any place to search for files.

MIND must have really had a thing for white washed walls, it was starting to make Duo’s eyes hurt. This room was devoid of anything save several hatches. These hatches were little circular windows whose glass blocked dark seawater from beyond. The glass was sealed and the water beyond them looked very menacing. Duo went up to one of the hatches and placed a hand on the glass. It was icy cold. With a start Duo discovered a switch to open the hatches. He thought of a name for this at once. Self detonation device, handily equipped if you needed to flood your own ship for some reason. Duo shrugged and turned to go.

He stopped dead. There was a girl standing in the doorway. From her white dress she immediately pulled out a pistol, cocked it with a click, and walked up to Duo. The gun was leveled and pressing into Duo’s forehead in an instant.

Duo felt his heart leap to his throat for a minute and then calmed down. It’d been a long time since someone had held a gun to his head, and the braided teen had almost forgotten his coping mechanism. Almost. "Hey there. Do you have a license for that thing?"

"No," she had very hollow, distant eyes that flashed towards the hatches beyond Duo. "No one opened those yet? Hn, good help is very rare to find these days. Do you know what we use them for?"

"The hatches? Easy, self detonation."

"Actually you’re wrong. I have students that can block the pressure of all those tons of seawater with their minds. No one’s let a drop in this ship for years."

Duo looked at her face for a second. She saw that he was reading her expression and the gun was pressed several inches deeper. Duo found what he was looking for; it was the long red hair that gave it away. "Mishii?"

"Yes…"

"I see," Duo laughed softly. "Moiya put you up to trying to scare me?"

Her thumb rested lightly on the trigger. "I’m not scaring you?"

"Not at all, gorgeous."

The crack of the gun firing next to his ear resounded in Duo’s mind so much that he instinctively ducked. He ducked in one piece. Duo turned around in wonder.

Mishii had flicked her hand a little and the shot had hit one of the hatches. Cracks were spider webbing into the glass, and after a few seconds water started to spring through them. Mishii giggled. "Have fun escaping…" she backed up through the threshold of the door, "…and for future reference, you should be very scared of me Duo."

The door was slammed shut behind her. Duo heard the sound of it locking. Behind him the glass exploded and water poured into the room, knocking Duo off of his feet. All over the ship Mishii blasted hatches open, as Duo got up shakily and realized that he was trapped on the Integrity.