Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' but Karina and the plot. But after I steal those ruby slippers from Toto's chew toy collection. . .

by Bluefire

Heero watched Duo and the girl curiously. They seemed to know each other. They were talking to quietly to be heard. Now they were embracing, Duo was...crying? He'd never seen the baka do that before. She must be someone important, or he wouldn't react this way.

He studied her closely. She was familiar, but he was certain he had never seen her before in his life. Her nose was ... Duo-ish, her frame was tinier than Duo's, maybe even smaller than Quatre's, who was the smallest of the five pilots. Light brown hair, the same kind Duo had, just lighter.

"I wonder," he heard Quatre say. He was whispering to Trowa and Wufei, who were, like Heero, watching the exchange closely. Again, Heero's patience did not flow in rivers or streams. He cleared his throat loudly, receiving a sharp look of reprimand from Trowa.

The two that had been embracing broke apart, Duo wiping his eyes. She had wet eyes, but no tears ever seemed to fall.

"Would anyone like to explain this to the rest of us?" Heero watched the braided baka sniffle slightly.

"Sorry," Duo's face was streaked. "I just forgot you were there..." He, and the girl, for that matter, both seemed to suddenly realize they weren't alone. Duo gave a nervous laugh, glancing at the girl, who smiled suddenly too, and then both burst out laughing from some unspoken joke between them. "Guys, meet...." he choked off, giving her a glance that must have meant something to both of them, " Um, well... here goes. Guys, please meet my sister, Karina Maxwell!" he announced proudly. "Kari, please meet Heero, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei."
The jaws of the four other boys couldn't have hung down further. All were left speechless, and ultimately, tactless as well.

"Si...sis..."

"Sister," Duo finished for Quatre. "She's my sister."

"Oh my God," Quatre breathed, sinking down into a pew. "Duo, when did you get a sister?"

"When I was four," the braided pilot responded cheerfully.

"And you never said anything?" Trowa never bothered with unnecessary words, but he repeated himself just the same.

"Well... I thought she was dead," Duo darted a glance at his younger sibling. "She thought I was. We were separated during the massacre of the Maxwell church. I... suppose that means I'm not the only survivor any more."

"Solo?" Karina drew in her breath sharply.

"Gone," Duo bowed his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Kari, but I couldn't save him," he was using that strangled whisper again.

"I know," she replied softly. "You were only 8."

"Wait... what are you both doing on L2?" Wufei had seemed deep in thought, now he broke out of that to watch the two siblings. "And today?"

Duo cleared his throat. "Actually, today is the tenth anniversary of the Maxwell Church massacre. " Heero didn't think anything could be held reverent to Duo until then. His tone couldn't have held more respect. Usually, the pilot wore a smirk, real or no, and a smug word or two. Now he seemed almost in awe. "I try to go to a church once a year... today. And we just happened to be on L2. But, wait a minute... what are you doing here?"

He pulled back from Karina slightly to look at her face more clearly.

"Long, long story. I don't want to tell it, I don't know if you'd want to hear it. So I'll just leave it at 'I'm here'." The corners of her mouth were twitching, the way Duo's did sometimes, when he saw something amusing that he knew no one else would understand but to him made all the sense in the world.

"You came after the attack?" Trowa leaned forward, green eyes reflecting in the candlelight.

"Yeah. I come here every year." Her tone still held that respect, like Duo's had, when ever she mentioned the massacre.

"Of course," Duo nodded to himself. "That's why there were 24 candles. I wondered who would know that."

"23, now," she corrected. "One of those was for you." Heero, Wufei and Trowa sat down next to Quatre, so all six were facing each other. "But you still haven't told me why you're here."

"Guess we both have long stories," Duo grinned ruefully. "I just hope---"

He was cut off as all were thrown to the ground in a violent shudder of the building. The plaster of the walls started to fall off, dust drifting up all around.

"The mobile suits!" Wufei yelled. "We have to get out before they can do more damage!"

Crouching and covering their heads so they wouldn't be harmed, the six darted outside, narrowly avoiding serious mishap several times when something heavy would fall.

When they finally reached sunlight again, there were several Leo dolls visible throughout the colony. The suits were updated, but the same ugly bashe color, glaring one green eye. People were running, screaming everywhere. 1-Z soldiers were firing at them coldly, and more ground troops were arriving.

There were eight soldiers heading towards the church. Large rifles were instantly locked onto the six. Everyone froze.

Except Duo. His gun was out faster than the eye could blink, and a soldier was down and bleeding. The others skipped only a moment to pull out their own, and two more were down. The leader of the eight seemed enraged, he fired right at Duo, who ducked as soon as the trigger pulled. The remaining five soldiers opened fire, the boys firing back. Unexpected by all five boys, Karina produced a gun of her own, and joined right in.

Two more 1-Z soldiers went down , and there were only the three left, including the leader, no sign of running out of ammunition. Duo's gun was empty, he was trying to load more cartridges, as were Wufei and Heero. Trowa's last bullet hit the church steps with a clank, and he bent down with the others to refill his weapon.

That left Quatre and Karina, who shot down yet another soldier, and finally, only the leader was left. They managed to get him down too, but not before he called for help.

"Run!" Karina directed, motioning the others to follow her. Quatre followed quickly, but the others hesitated. Who was she to know how to get out of something like this? They had little time though, and ran quite promptly. She lead them around the church, almost smacking into seven more 1-Z soldiers, who were readily assaulted with Karina's fists, then her gun, before the others caught up and shot the last five. Needless to say, all were surprised at Duo's sister, not that they could dwell on the subject at the moment. They were running faster than they ever had in their lives, to wherever she took them. There were too many of 1-Z for them to attack now. They needed more people, more weapons. What they needed were the gundams.

* * *

Panting, they all reached the shuttle port. How Karina had managed to lead them back here with all the twists she had thrown in was a mystery, but they were here nevertheless. The mobile suits were destroying all the tall buildings that hadn't fallen yet, hunting down people and killing them like wild animals. There was only one shuttle left here, the one the five boys had brought.

"We still have time!" Quatre wheezed out.

"Time for what?" Duo gasped.

"To get to out gundams!" Quatre clutched his stomach, which still hurt from the run.

"Our gundams are gone!" Duo reminded. "We destroyed them, as I recall."

"Your gundams?!" Karina's eyes widened. "You were the five gundam pilots?"

All five had temporarily forgotten the fact that Karina didn't know their true identities. "Quatre, what do you mean?" Heero ignored Karina's comments.

"Well... I started to rebuild them... just in case..." the pilot's face was bright red.

"Wufei, you up to piloting?" Duo faced the Chinese.

"Of course, baka," Wufei pushed himself off the wall he had been resting against. "We must hurry."

* * *

"Gundams?" Karina murmured as the shuttle sped onwards. "And I thought I had important secrets..."

"What secrets?" Duo broke into her musings.

"Uh... nothing. " She clapped a hand over her mouth. "Me and my big mouth. I was just blabbing."

"Well, now we know that Duo's big mouth is a family trait," Heero grunted in monotone from the co-pilot chair. It had been delved from Quatre that he had been secretly rebuilding the gundams, in case the peace didn't last. They were all grateful for that now, and heading towards Earth, where he had secreted them.

Duo leaned his head back against the seat he was strapped into. He shifted for a moment, before folding his arms behind his head and apparently deciding that was comfortable. "Well, you know what I've been doing since we were separated. We've got an hour or two before we reach earth. You can tell me that long story now. Or just what you've been up to."

Karina seemed uncomfortable at the prospect. "Not much, I guess. Although... I guess you should know... especially since you're fighting them...I'm a fugitive from 1-Z."

"You're what?!" Duo shot up from his seat.

"A fugitive?" Quatre echoed.

"How?" Trowa was keeping with the 40-words per day margin well.

"Um, again, very long story. But they're not very happy with me. I'm actually---oi, this is incredibly strange all for one day--- or rather was, a resistance member during the war, like you. For the last part of the war, anyway."

Duo gaped. There was no other word to describe it. They were all even more shocked now. They day hadn't started up exactly normal... but this? It was readily becoming apparent they had underestimated her. In a way, as they had underestimated each other in the beginning. A second war, and more underestimation's were already being revealed.

"How old were you?" Wufei was the only pilot that seemed to keep his wits.

"Twelve. They almost didn't let me fight." She seemed like she would have regretted that.

"I thought we were the only ones that weren't technically adults," Quatre's face was somewhat pale. "Other than Hilde, and Relena, and ..."

"They always hid things from us," Heero's face couldn't have been more darkened if a black rain cloud hung right over his face.

"Wonder how much they took to their graves," Duo murmured.

"Who's 'they'?" Karina looked from one pilot to another.

"The doctors who built our gundams, or at least, came up with their designs," Trowa stepped in when no one else replied.

"You mean Dr. J and Professor G and the rest?"

For the second time in less than five minutes, Duo's head snapped up as he was again thrown into the sea of confusion by his sibling. "You knew G?!" Duo practically shrieked.

"Of course. He's why I was in the resistance," Karina made it sound like the most simple thing in the world.

"He knew you were alive and didn't tell me?!" A vein in Duo's neck was throbbing, which Trowa and Heero, who usually wore masks of blankness, smirked at. Wufei muttered something about injustice, which could have been in relation to Duo's problem, or the fact that Duo was shrieking. Only Quatre and Karina had sympathy.

"He never told me about you either," Karina told him reassuringly. She bowed her head suddenly, a thought striking her. "You know, now that I think about it, he might have dropped a hint or two..."

"He didn't even give me a hint!"

"Calm down, Duo," Quatre patted his shoulder soothingly. "J has reasons for what he does, just like all the doctors. He was probably waiting to tell you at the right time."

"Right time?" Duo echoed hollowly. "When would that be? When I'm dead?"

"What's done is done, Maxwell," Wufei told him curtly. "You can't change the past, and even if you could, what would you do?"

"Several things, all which involve a violent action and Professor G," Duo 's words were slightly slurred by clenched teeth. "I went through alot, most of which he could have prevented if he'd just told me."

"Don't let it eat you. You can't turn back time, so you might as well live with it." Karina was plopped down beside her brother, who was beginning to realize he really couldn't turn back time, no matter what he thought the zero system was capable of.

"Alright, I guess. But I'm sick of the secrets around here. At least we could get rid of all the secrets from the last war before they start another one."

"Lousy odds, Shingami." Heero gave a sort of chuckling noise. "These people will never learn."

* * *

Karina pretended to be awed by the monstrous gundams, mostly for her brothers sake. A part of her really was, it was the same as fearing a tame lion, but she had been near mobile suits for most of her memorable life. They were incredible, the way they spired upwards to the roof of the hanger, massive and brimming with power. But once you had flown one, you understood more and more that the pilot was even more to be respected. It took control. More control than she had had. But the OZ officials had convinced her it was possible. She still had the scars.

"Kari, wait here for us," Duo came up behind her, boots clattering loudly on the metal of the hanger floor. He was dressed in a piloting suit, carrying the helmet tucked under one arm.

She nodded. After all, he didn't know who she really was, blood relative or no.

* * *

"Five Leos approaching!" Duo announced as he threw his new Deathscythe into the fray of the battle. Mobile suits swarmed all around L2, crawling thick like some sort of vermin. There were leos, aries, and a few other suits, some of which were unrecognizable to the gundam pilots, meaning they were probably newly developed by the new 1-Z organization.

1-Z was bigger, stronger, and more threatening than OZ ever could have been. They didn't actually rule, in public anyway, but were independently run. It was insinuated that several high ranking officials had managed to infiltrate the senate. The new leader of 1-Z, Mereya Cain, was also rumored to be some relative of the deceased Trieze Khushrenada. 1-Z sprung up from the scattered supporters of OZ and White Fang, only they had managed to recruit a vast army of scientists to create new weapons. And new soldiers. The biotechnology was only one of a few things that were making the gundam pilots more wary than ever.

" Take the two on the left," Heero ordered from the renovated Wing Zero. "There are more coming. I'll take the three approaching the colony."

"Roger." Duo grinned slightly as he leaned forward in his seat and swung his scythe towards the two. To his amazement, the scythe bounced harmlessly off the two with a magnetic sort of crackle. Blue veins of electricity surrounded the Leo for a moment, before fading. Duo's mouth hung open. Shielding? Since when has a leo had shielding? He swung the scythe a second time, hoping to break through the static wall separating him from the suit.

Again, it was only flung back. He gaped at the suits, which were rapidly closing in on him. The garish looking leos somehow managed to look almost menacing in now. In desperation, he fired his head vulcans. Nothing. Again, the shields repelled his weapons. This is impossible! How will I ever win if...? He started to try every weapon he had. Machine cannon, Wing vulcan... he was ready to scream in frustration. The leos were starting to fire. He was useless to stop them.

They were throwing all their armaments at him. Slowly, systems of Deathscythe were failing. "Mayday, mayday," he repeated over and over on the com system .

"Hang on, Duo. We'll be there in a moment," Quatre's voice calmly intoned.

Deathscythe started to jerk. The shots were hammering the gundamain with jarring force, and he was helpless. Duo was tossed about the cockpit despite his seat restraints. His head connected with something sharp and heavy, and in only moments, his world faded to black.

* * *

"Karina!" Quatre yelled. The petite brunette spun around, only to see him waving her frantically to follow him. She had a puzzled look on her face.

"I thought you wouldn't be back yet," she murmured as she walked slowly to follow him.

"Hurry." He didn't mean to make his voice that sharp, but this was an emergency. She stepped into pace beside him, speed-walking through the metal corridors of the underground desert fortress. "Duo's in the medical bay. He's been injured. There's only one nurse, she needs someone to help and I have to get going back to L2." He'd been elected to bring Duo back, despite the fact the battle was still raging strong. Actually, he'd volunteered. He felt guilty now, because it was his fault Duo's beam scythe hadn't been hot enough to cut through the Leo shielding. But he didn't have time to ponder on his emotions now, just get back to Sandrock.

After directing Karina towards the medical bay, he broke into a full run towards the hanger. He just wished he didn't feel so much like he was running from his emotions at the same time.

* * *

Karina tip-toed into the room, only to find a nurse frantically hooking up tubes and wires to her brother. There was a gauze bandage covering one side of his head, already being stained crimson with blood that seeped into it. His breathing was shallow, and his body was stained with blood and grime.

The nurse gave a start when she entered the room, followed by a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad you've arrived. Go out into the hall and get me and IV bag, more gauze, and a bottle of pills marked X-39. Please." The blond woman was obviously stressed over the situation; put into a frenzy. "I have another nurse arriving as soon as she can."

Karina nodded and went to complete the assignment. She tapped one finger on her chin as she scanned the supplies rack. I wonder what happened to Duo. I knew the Leos shielding would be strong, but to defeat a gundam... that's ridiculous. She should know, she reminded herself as she headed back to the room. She had been a part of the leo testing.

The nurse nodded gratefully as she took the wanted materials , dark eyes weary. "This should be all for now."

Understanding she was no longer needed, the sibling moved quietly from the room. She started at the shining steel floor, which obviously hadn't been walked on much. The entire underground place was as large as a small city, and it all looked new, unused and sterile. She found her steps leading towards the hanger. It wasn't a terribly long walk before she arrived, and found it all but deserted. Deathscythe was battered and twisted. The paint had peeled off in some areas, uncovering the gleaming gundanian beneath.

A thought occurred to her suddenly, and she rejected it. After all, she had failed the tests at OZ. And almost paid for it with her life. But if she could just modify a few of Deathscythes systems.... maybe. Just maybe.

* * *

"All the mobile suits have been dispersed," Quatre breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Then we should head back to make repairs. We don't know when they'll return," Trowa said, moving Heavywarms to join the other gundams at the center of the battlefield.

"I think we've all taken a beating," Heero agreed.

"Then what are we waiting for? We should hurry," Wufei cut in.

"Hai. And then--" Heero was cut off as Wing Zero's sensors blared a warning. "We've got company."

* * *

Karina grinned to herself and wiped a droplet of motor oil off her face, making it smudge on her cheek. She had found the problem in less than an hour. For some reason, whoever had worked on this gundam hadn't given any of the weapons the speed or heat they needed to cut through the sheilding. It was easy to make a few adjustments, and then repair some of the systems that had fallen under the leos assault.

The paint, she didn't care much about, all though she had the feeling Duo might be a little upset that it looked a little less intimidating than it should have. The grin twisting slightly, she gathered up her tools and left to go change into a flight suit.

* * *

"I think it's time we retreated," Quatre's voice was melancholy through the buzz of the com.

"We can still defeat them." Wufei's voice was hard.

"It's risky. If we had Duo..." Trowa trailed off, still launching Heavyarms artillery at MS as he went.

"We have to try," Heero's voice was like steel grating on steel.

"I'm not so sure. If they think they can just finish us off like this--Nani?! What is that?!"

All the pilots turned towards the source of Quatre's surprise. Or rather, the heat source on their sensor screens.

"Deathscythe," Heero muttered.

"There's no way!" Quatre shook his head in the darkness of his cockpit. "It needed several key adjustments, and there was no one that knew how to fix it at out base!"

"It couldn't have been Duo. Is it possible someone hijacked the base?"

"Impossible!" Quatre answered Heero's question. "Not even the Maganacs knew about that place!"

". . . "

* * *

The pain was intense and blinding. It was an intense struggle for control. But for the first time, Karina didn't feel like it was a battle she was losing. She still had control of herself. She knew where she was going, and her purpose.

The battle sight came into view. There were charred scraps of titanium everywhere. And there were still mechs fighting. There were only a few MD's, scattered here and there, but there were still at least two dolls for every gundam. It was quiet, as space always was, but she knew that stillness couldn't possibly exist, the way the gundams were faltering. They had been fighting several hours now. They must've been tired.

"O2 pilot, identify yourself." She was fairly certain it was Heero's commanding tones that had just hailed her, audio only, on the com. She brought the gundam to a halt, the pain subsiding. She felt powerful.

She didn't answer him, instead charged at a leo. She knew their weaknesses and where it cut their power the most. It had taken the gundams several hits to take down each suit, but she cut this one down in only two. The weapons came easily, an it was as if she could feel the suit molding to fit her.

She caught the suits attention with this, and moved on to the next. In only a few moments, she had three down. All because she knew a few tactical details, like the leos were vulnerable when they raised their arms and the aries had an Achilles heel of sorts on their feet, where faulty titanium sheeting had been delivered to the 1-Z factories for the plating of their feet. The other gundams, without further comment, obviously noted some of these details and took them to mind. In only minutes, the maybe twenty MS had been demolished.

She smiled in the small, cramped confines of Deathscythes cockpit. It was. . . exhilarating, somehow. She choked off a laugh as she realized most of the people in those suits had been her friends, maybe. Too late for regrets now, though. She turned her back on them long before. But they'd turned their backs first.

"O2, identify yourself," Heero repeated, cutting into her thoughts sharply. She turned on her com link, visual and audio. Heero stared back at her. So even the perfect soldier can show a little surprise. Her mouth curled up wryly.

"You look a little pale, Heero. You okay?"

He recovered quickly, maybe a little more quickly than she would have liked for dramatic effect, but she supposed that would be one of the few times she would ever see him gape.

"Why are you here?" he demanded collide.

"Aren't you glad I came? It looked to me like you guys needed a little help." His eyes flashed at her.

"You took Deathscythe. You could have been killed." His voice was low, threatening.

"But I wasn't. And there's no use crying over spilt milk, right?"

He almost smiled at this. She couldn't think why, but then, who knew what went on his head?

* * *

Karina was the first to step into the hanger, and climb down Deathscythe to the cool metal floor. She hadn't had the satisfaction of seeing the surprise on the other pilots face when they were told who the pilot really was, because Heero had told them. She wasn't overly disappointed though. They were already eyeing her differently, more like an equal than just another girl. Of course, they were all pretty ticked at her as well. There was respect in those glares, but frowns as well.

She ignored them and headed straight to the medical ward. No use in pouring salt into an open wound, and her less than humble attitude at the moment might contribute to that.

She heard the clinking of footsteps behind her as the others followed her through the corridors. She could tell they were glaring at her back. Stealing a gundam wasn't something they considered honorary or praiseworthy, even if she had turned around the battle for them.

Ignoring their looks of disapproval, she went straight into Duo's room, brushing past two nurses and a doctor in the process.

He grinned weakly at her from the bed; he was heavily bandaged in some places and his face was discolored with bruises, not to mention that the fluorescent lighting would make anyone look a little worse than they really were. She grinned back and plopped down into a chair beside his bed. She noticed the other pilots didn't follow her in.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a million bucks. A million bucks in plastic surgery, that is," he chuckled hoarsely.

"Glad to hear your sense of humor wasn't damaged."

* * *

"She had to have training," Heero hissed. "You don't just jump into an MS one day and suddenly know how to fly it."

"She did pull out that hand gun pretty quick when we encountered those soldiers," Quatre admitted. "But still, piloting a mobile doll is alot different than piloting a gundam. Where would she get intense enough training to be capable of this?"

His statement was met by blank stares. The four pilots were seated in chairs a few yards from Duo's room, discussing the problem. They were all tired and filthy, but none seemed ready to go rest yet.

"We know very little of her," Wufei's tone was cautious, and measuring. "Perhaps we underestimated her."

"Perhaps?" Trowa's voice wavered from it's usual monotone. "She not only piloted it without incident, she repaired it as well. That suggests she knows the systems. And she knew the new suits weaknesses."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Quatre muttered. "There are just too many loose ends in all this. I just wish we knew something more about her."

"There's only one way to find out." The Chinese boy's eyes glittered as he rose from his chair.

The others nodded their agreement and followed him to the only occupied room in the medical ward.

* * *