*Hiiro awoke to the sound of his name being called. He saw in the distance, the other four pilots looking in the rubble for his body. As he stood up, he brushed off his jeans and shirt. In his hand he held a small leather bag, given to him by Sai. Sai. Where was she?
“Hiiro! There you are!” Duo called out to him.
“Hiiro! You’re alive!” Cried Quatre.
“ Knew you didn’t have enough guts to die Yui. Get the disk?” Asked Wufei.
“I don’t know. Sai?”
“No one saw her come out. Did you run into her in the computer room?” Questioned Trowa.
“Yeah. On our way out, we got stuck with some guards. Then the bombs went off. She gave me this and that’s all I saw.” He held the bag out. While Wufei took it from him, he turned to look at the base. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement beneath the heavy cement walls that had nearly collapsed in on him. Tapping Trowa and Duo on the shoulders, the three of them went to lift the block, while Wufei stood with a gun for good measure, and Quatre now examined the bag. The boys lifted the block with great difficulty and threw it aside. Duo gasped in shock.
“ Unnn…I don’t feel so well… can I stay home from school today mommy?” There, underneath the block, was Sai, trying to sit up, but having a very hard time. Duo kneeled beside her and checked her breathing.
“ She’s in really bad shape… at least four broken ribs, if not all of them, and a nasty bump on the head to match. She needs a doctor, and a good one fast.”
“Well, we’re done here anyway. We might as well take her back to the Preventer’s headquarters where Sally can look at her. After that, she can be questioned, tried, and convicted.”
“Wufei has a good plan. Hiiro, you can carry her to the jeep and hold her while I drive back. Do we know what the contents of the bag are yet?” Asked Trowa.
“ No, just some little metal capsules and a scrap of paper that has a few jumbled words on it.” Answered Quatre as they loaded the jeep.
“She was really serious. I mean, broken bones, internal bleeding, head trauma, lung punctures, the works. It’s bad enough that I don’t think she’ll last the night. Sorry boys, but I did all I could, and chances are 100 to 1 that she’ll live t see tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks Sally. Help me with the report?”
“Sure Wufei.” And the two walked out of the door.
“Well, no one can figure out what the tin canisters in her bad contain. They don’t open, and they aren’t big enough to fit anything into, not even a disk.”
“Are you sure Miss. Noin? There’s no disk of information?”
“None. Sorry Quatre. What we did find was a scrap of paper. Once we figured out it was written on ancient Japanese, we had a translator decode it. It’s directions on how to change one’s appearance.”
“What?” Asked Trowa.
“You heard me. It says to pull the pin out of the capsule that is somewhere on the body. We think that those things in the bag are called capsules, and that she might have been wearing one to alter her true appearance. Did you see any?”
“ Not that we no of. She’s in the room asleep right now, and Hiiro’s in there with her. Maybe he noticed something.” With that, Trowa, Noin, and Quatre walked into Sai’s room to question Hiiro.
Hiiro was sitting on an extremely hard chair staring blankly at Sai. Not that he was looking at her, but he was looking her direction, and thinking about her weird behavior. She had threatened his life, then offered to help him, then been his comrade for a few moments, and then saved him and put herself in harm’s way for him. It wouldn’t be so confusing if he hadn’t known she was more partial to killing people than trying to get along and help them. She had easily killed others. So why not kill him. He was an enemy too. Why not? Then he heard Quatre, Noin, and Trowa enter the room.
“ Hiiro, have you seen any trinkets on Sai? I mean, any rings, bracelets, charms?” Asked Noin.
“No, only her necklace, the chocker one around her throat.” He looked at it in detail for the first time. It had a thick black velvet strip of cloth with a silver canister embroidered into the neckline.
“That may be it. The directions say to pull the pin out of the top.” Said Noin.
“Why?” Asked Hiiro.
“We think that she’s altered her true appearance by using that device.” Answered Trowa. As Quatre pulled the pin from the capsule, Sai’s form took on slow but drastic changes. First, she seemingly shrank on the bed. She got shorter, and her arms and legs thinner. Her face softened, and her skin became paler. Long golden blonde hair fanned around her, and when her eyes flickered open, they were azure blue, not purple any more. Another strange addition was an upturned, crescent- shaped golden moon on her forehead.
“ Wow.” Said Noin as the change was completed.
“She really does look like the Angel of Compassion. What do you think, Hiiro?” Asked Quatre.
“…” For the first time since he had met Sai, he was speechless over her. Was Girl-Angel still fitting? Or would Goddess be better?
“Yui! I need a report from you!” Zechs cried as he stamped in through the door. ‘Damned man.’ Hiiro thought. He turned and left the room to complete his report.
Five very sleepy pilots woke to find that they were sitting in the Preventer’s headquarters outside the medical rooms. As they stretched and drank the bad Preventer coffee, Sally Po came whistling cheerfully down the hall.
“Morning boys! Sleep well?”
“Woman…”
“I know… your night was hell. As soon as I get these papers checked, I’ll look at our patient, but like I said yesterday, she wasn’t expected to last the night.” With that, Sally turned and walked into another room. Suddenly, a sleepy yawn was heard from the door of Sai’s room. In the doorway was Sai, standing and alert.
“Morning. Could someone get me something warm to drink?” She asked. Sai didn’t know why they were staring, but she didn’t like all of the attention. She had noticed when she woke up that she was in Serena’s form, but didn’t bother to change back to Sai because it hurt too much to lift her arm to touch her capsule. As Trowa handed her a cup of something, she drank it down quickly. Then she spit it out as fast as it had gone into her mouth.
“Ew! Gross! Coffee? What kind of guy gives a little girl coffee? Trowa, thanks for the thought, but uhh… is hot chocolate possible?”
“You a little girl? You want hot chocolate? For breakfast?” Was Duo’s reply. Sai nodded vigorously in response, then asked:
“ Also, my bag and capsules?”
“Sure, I’ll go get them…” And Quatre left down the hall. Just then, Sally Po chose to walk through the door.
“You’re up? I didn’t think you’d make it through the night, and your standing up?”
“Yeah, well, us Lunairians have this knack for surviving near death situations… or maybe it’s a family thing… oh well.” She drank down the hot chocolate Trowa had given her. She nodded her head in thanks. Was she going soft? Then, Quatre handed her her bad.
“ I suppose you had the devil of a time trying to figure these out, ne?”
“ How’d you guess?” Asked Wufei.
“Hnn.” She pulled out one, then handed it to Hiiro. “Hold this.” Then she dug for another one.
When she was satisfied it was the one she wanted, she pulled the pin, and into her hand fell three small beans. She ate one, then put the rest back in the capsule. Suddenly she felt much better. There was no more pain, and her energy level was sky high. To get the feel of her body, she quickly did a couple of flips, then a hand spring and landed in front of Hiiro. She took the capsule and pulled the pin. After her laptop appeared, she sat down to type on it. As soon as five minutes later, she was ejecting a disk and handing it to Hiiro.
“I promised the information, didn’t I?” Then her computer beeped impatiently. She opened the mail, and on the screen appeared Doctor J. “Doc J. Mission complete. I have a bone to pick with you though. There’s five guys here that are just as good as I am. Who are they?”
“What are their names?” Asked the old man.
“Hiiro, Quatre, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei. Know them?” Hiiro noted the cool tone in her voice.
“Know them? Those are the Gundam Pilots, Sai.” She stared blankly at the screen. Then she turned and looked at each of the boys, one at a time.
“You’re the Gundam Pilots, and you didn’t say anything?”
“Um, yeah babe. If we did, we would be killed for sure. Besides, you probably fought for OZ in the war. Don’t you hate us?” Answered Duo, thinking he’d gotten the better of her.
“ Her? On OZ’s side in the war? Duo, have your hearing checked. When you came to get us Doctors from in Libra, I told you both Sai and Hiiro were too busy to help us. That means that she fought on your side.” Spoke up Doctor J from the computer.
“Yeah. I helped more than you know. I’m the reason 01 got his buster rifle in time, and I warned you about the extra mobile dolls from behind. And during the Eve Wars, I watched Shenlong and Wing Zero duke it out in space before I took on the Aries attack force that was going to Earth as reinforcements against you all. I was there from the time the Doctors began rebuilding Shenlong and Deathscythe in the Luner Base.”
“Really?” Asked Quatre.
“Hnn. Do I have a reason to lie yet?”
“Sai, since you’re there, and the Red Fang had been dissipated, there will be no more missions for a while. Stay. Take a vacation. Boys, Sai is my top student at the moment. Take care of her. And Sai, I like the fact that you’ve gone back to your real appearance. You kind of almost look divine.” With that, the old doctor ended the transmission.
“Vacation me? And keep this look? I don’t think so.” She said in a harsh response to his comments.
“ Please keep them?” Hiiro spoke up. She caught his eye and held him in a stare.
“Alright, but only while I take my vacation. Anyone know what I should do first?” She gave a half smirk. *