Disclaimer: If this were mine, I'd jump the moon, but it isn't so there's no need to wear my sneakers today. And a few of the secondary characters are mine, but Angela? Well, she belongs to herself...

K, this is the next part of the series!

"How did you know-" Quatre began, but Heero merely glanced at him, silent warning in his eyes to be quiet. He regarded the others of the work gang with blank impassivity, and they stared back, until Dorothy finally snapped in annoyance.

"Now really Yuy, do you have to give everyone a silent Death Glare upon meeting them? Let me guess, you'll pull a gun on them soon and say "omae o kuruso", as well, won't you?" Sarcasm dripped from her voice and Heero swung his gaze back to Dorothy, before he shrugged silently, still not stepping forward into the meager light. "Well, suit yourself. Who else is with you?"

Heero hesitated for a moment, then answered, "Duo, Hilde, and Trowa."

"Duo? Trowa?" Quatre's voice faltered, "I thought they had gone back to the L2 colony!"

"He came back for the ball at the Peacecraft mansion," Heero replied. "We were all there."

Dorothy sighed impatiently as she flipped her hair back. "Wonderful. Now, shall we discuss our battle plans, Mr. Yuy? Quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of this life and quite eager to get back to the snarling bickering of civilization." Dorothy said pointedly, and Heero finally sat down as he withdrew a sheaf of papers from his pack. He tossed it on the table, watching as Dorothy snagged the topmost sheet with practiced ease, a small frown marring her brow.

"In-ter-est-ing..." She murmured. "I didn't know there were metal shafts leading directly into the complex."

"Cuz we weren't allowed t'look." Chris retorted, leaning over her shoulder. "Hmmm....ore shafts. Probably where raw ore goes to the refinery..." He tapped a part of the blueprints that was riddled with machinery.

"And this is where it's shifted off planet...or off asteroid as the case may be, headed towards the markets." Quatre indicated a part of the complex that looked like a docking bay. His eyes were grim, "At the most inaccessible part of the asteroid as well."

Heero watched as they absorbed the information; Dorothy, her eyes narrowed with gleaming speculation, and an equally intense Quatre, mind working with cool objectivity. They were both soldiers, even though Quatre hated to admit it. Soldiers with a soldier's mind for battle. Of all the Gundam pilots, Quatre had the sharpest mind, the highest ability to lead his men because of his compassion for those under his command. Because Quatre cherished every life, he fought only to preserve it...but Dorothy was different.

Dorothy was more like himself, a loner, a soldier that fought a solitary battle because she refused to allow her capacity for love to show itself. But she did care. After the war, Dorothy had gone to visit Trieze's gravesite, laying flowers to rest on the mound of earth that rested over the fallen warrior. Unknown to most, she had also gone to the mass cemetery that contained the body of every soldier that had fallen in the last battle and had stayed there until the dying rays of the sun had forced her back to the mansion. Tear streaks had marred her face that day, only to be hidden once again by the cold mockery in her smile. It was the only way she knew how to live.

Suddenly, a flash of pure mischief flashed in Dorothy's hard blue eyes. "The shafts lead to the central complex. If one of us were to infiltrate it, we would have complete access to the communications system, the entire asteroid. If we can gain control of that..."

"...then we could easily send off a message to the Earth's Sphere Alliance to bring reinforcements!" Quatre said in excitement, but Heero shook his head.

"No."

"What? What do you mean Heero?"

Dorothy grimaced, answering instead. "I'm assuming that Miss Releena did not give official permission for this mission, did she? It would have gone against her stance on pacifism. If she does order Mobile Suits brought in, then the Western delegation will be able to accuse her of reneging on the treaty." At Heero's nod, Dorothy muttered, "I expected this..."

"Then how come y'told Luir that if Miss. Dorlain would send armies after 'im, Doll?" Chris demanded roughly.

"It was a ruse on my part." Dorothy flipped through the remaining pages of the dossier before she looked up. "There was no other way I could ensure that he would not harm anyone otherwise." She smiled cynically, "It's nice to know these years in the political field have paid off for something. But we digress. Even if we won't be able to ask for reinforcements...we can always warn the colonies of this...this criminal organization. And besides..." Her smile widened, and her eyes glittered dangerously, "Luir is there. Kill the general, cripple the army."

"What?!" Quatre jumped up. "You can't go in there expecting to kill anyone! You told me you wouldn't!" For the first time in his life, he was angry at her, furious even. "If we fight, we'll only perpetrate a vicious cycle, another chapter in this endless waltz. And I am sick of fighting!"

Dorothy glared coldly back up at him, "Then shall we just allow him to kill us slowly? Escape and leave thousands on this asteroid to work the rest of their lives away? That isn't honorable. A soldier cannot run from his responsibilities."

"Fighting is not the answer! And we are not soldiers anymore!"

"I am." Dorothy replied with venomous softness. "And I told you, I always will be a child of war." Quatre glared helplessly at her before walking away, storming out into the night without saying anything to anyone. Heero watched his friend go, inwardly bewildered at this mercurial, even dangerous side of Quatre he had never seen before, except in the Zero system...

Dorothy broke the silence with a small cough. "Let's continue with the battle plans. Tomorrow is the best day to strike...before he finds the shuttle." Heero glanced back at her, Prussian blue eyes revealing nothing as he nodded.

Expectations...Love is all too brief and all too fragile...Dorothy forced herself to pay attention to the battle plans, face melting back into a mask of stone. And Catalonias never find love...even when they know that love is given...and reciprocated.

***

A while later, Dorothy walked outside, watching Quatre stare sightlessly up at the stars. "Quatre?"

He turned, some semblance of a smile on his face though they didn't quite reach his eyes. "Dorothy. Are the plans ready?" Dorothy nodded, hesitantly wrapping her arms around his waist.

"The plans are made. I'm leaving tonight." Quatre closed his eyes, hugging her closer.

"I'm sorry about-"

"There isn't a need to be sorry, Quatre. I understand." Dorothy whispered back, letting herself be held. She hid her face in his shirt, not wanting him to see the tears that made her eyes soft, made her weak. "If the situation was reversed, I would not allow you to go either. However, I am the most replaceable for this job. You need to get home alive to look after your family, and Miss. Releena needs Yuy. The others don't know the codes, so they can't go."

"But you wouldn't let them if they did know, would you Dorothy?"

Dorothy shrugged, forcing a sardonic smile to her lips. "Call it three years worth of pacifism's mark on me. In this way, I am able to fight, but it will be for a good cause. And I'm not afraid."

"Just...I don't know. Just be safe Dorothy."

"I'm not ready to die just quite yet, thank you very much." A gleam sparked in her eyes. "I still have too many places to go."

So will I lose you either way? In death, or in parting? "You'll have to be alive to go, Dorothy. So stay safe and don't force unnecessary confrontations." She didn't answer, unable to promise that.

She kissed him quickly and stepped back, her mask not quite negating the tears in her eyes. "For luck, of course." Then she was gone.

"Of course." Quatre touched his lips and looked back towards the stars. You have all my luck with you, Dorothy. All my luck, and my love.

***

Dorothy slipped into the complex, her clothes even dirtier from her stint through the ore shafts and she grimaced in disgust. "Horrible unsanitary cesspit!" She hissed, saber, already withdrawn. She walked with cautious swiftness through the hall, her soft-soled shoes making no more than a whisper against the steel floor. "Now where did Yuy say that control center was?"

Footsteps approached her position rapidly and her eyes narrowed as she slipped into one of the many alcoves, saber held at ready. It was a young guard, swaggering along, not even bothering to check for any intruders as he smirked, gun slung over one arm. Dorothy smiled coldly. Fool...She fell in step behind him, then grabbed his hair, saber held to his throat.

Teeth bared and eyes froze like the glaciers of the Arctic. "Well, well...I caught a little fish. No no..." She held her blade tighter to his skin and his eyes widened as it broke through it slightly, a choked sound emerging from his lips. "If you do nothing wrong, you won't die. If you do...well then, I can't be held responsible for my actions, now can I?"

Five minutes later, a blue-eyed blonde-haired guard checked her saber, belted at her side, and the gun, which was thrown ever her back. She glanced back at the semi-naked, bound and gagged man and gave him a mocking salute. "Goodbye, Private. Oh, and thank you ever so much for your cooperation."

***

Fingers tapped easily against main console and Dorothy bit her lips intently, watching the passwords and identification locks melt beneath her fingers with a vengeful glint on her eyes. "Well...if this isn't the biggest scandal to involve court." She murmured, examining the names of the buyers with cold cynicism. "Some highborn necks are hanging tonight, now aren't they." She downloaded the information, then sent it on a private channel to Releena's personal computer, encrypting it with a heavy security code. Heero had developed just such a precaution...in case, of course, something like this ever happened. If the message was intercepted, the file would duplicate itself, sending one onwards to its final destination while the original deleted itself. An ingenious little mechanism that no one but a chosen few knew how to activate.

"Finished..." She flicked off the central controls, a smirk lighting her cold blue eyes as she listened to the machinery power down, the lights flicker slowly before dying altogether. The corridors echoed with panicked shouts and Dorothy quickly tossed an explosive in the room as she left, nodding casually at a running guard as he went past. A few minutes later, a huge explosion lit the air, tearing screaming metal from it's base, ripping wiring to shreds and melting steel in the orange yellow blast of a raging inferno. Dorothy watched as vaporous black clouds of soot rolled off it, filling the morning sky with an unmistakeable beacon. She threw her head back and laughed, a harsh, furious hiss of a cat. The moaning of the wind seemed to scream with her as it savagely whipped the flames higher. "Now, Mr. Luir...the games begin!"

***

Author's note: Whew! Thought I'd never finish that! Well, hope you like it, r&r!