A/N: I'm really sorry for abandoning my creative works and all my beloved readers for academics, but there it is. I entered the second round of a Germany-wide foreign languages competition and couldn't think of anything but Latin for a long time. Now, to compensate, I'm not thinking about it at all. Hope this chappie is at least partly worth the long wait!

The Intrigues Thicken

That night four silent figures met on the dark school grounds by the large boulder which marked the second entrance to the cave. They acknowledged each other with a nod, quickly and noiselessly moved the boulder, and slipped down into the tunnel.

Not a word was spoken until they reached the big cave. The Gundam pilots were usually silent on this sort of mission, but Catherine's continued absence added a note of gravity to the situation. The only place they could find a clue to her disappearance was here.

After a brief inspection, Heero and Wufei found the crevice that had attracted their attention a few nights before. After he had chipped a small hole into the back of it, Wufei thrust a hand-grenade into it.

Quickly everybody flattened themselves onto the floor, covering their ears to block out the noise of the explosion.

When they got up again, there was a very large hole in the wall of the cave – but no secret entrance. Heero exchanged a quick glance with Wufei, thinking 'I told you so' but not saying anything.

'Ok, new plan,' Quatre whispered. 'Let's inspect the entire cave for anything suspicious. Tekkan couldn't have vanished into thin air, and he couldn't have used either of the entrances we know of. So there must be some other way.'

The other pilots didn't argue and got to work straight away.

The next morning, however, new life filled the school again. All the darkness was gone, and though there was an air of suppressed secrecy about, the giggles and unsaid words spoke of excitement and wistful dreams.

It made Heero Yuy feel even more uncomfortable than ever as he walked down the hall, past groups of girls whose laughter and whispers seemed to increase as he passed them.

Methodically, he went through everything that had happened in the last 24 hours that might have leaked out to the other pupils. Had Marisa been talking again?

Suddenly, he caught sight of Ryan. Heero's eyes narrowed. The last thing he wanted was to listen to another cheerful tirade of talk from the guy who might – or might not – have had something to do with the drugs in his glass.

Quickening his pace, he tried to blend into the crowd of kids streaming from lockers to classrooms. There was an especially large group coming towards him, if he could only take temporary cover inside it . . .

Determinedly keeping his head down, Heero tried to push his way into the center of the group. Only when he heard the gasp 'Heero!' did he look up.

Relena stood before him, an apprehensive expression on her face. She's scared I'll freak out again, Heero thought, remembering . . .

. . . kissing her, stroking her silky hair, feeling her heart beat against his in a unison of longing, Relena placing her soft lips on his . . .

The last image startled him; he had not seen it before. The recollection of it had only been called forth when he confronted Relena for the first time since that night.

Relena had kissed him back.

While trying to analyse what that meant, Heero gave Relena a fleeting glance and uttered one word: 'Hi.'

He was going to push his way on, preoccupied with what his memory had just revealed to him, but the girls surrounding Relena didn't seem to want to let him pass. As a matter of fact, they all appeared to be whispering loudly to her.

'Ask him! Now's your chance! Ask him, Relena!'

Heero looked at the group, nonplussed. Something had happened since yesterday that made all the girls in this school even crazier than usual.

Relena glanced at him, blushing. She could probably guess that he had caught every word. 'No,' she hissed to the excited girls. 'Come on, let's just go . . .'

'What is it?' Heero asked briefly. If it was anything that meant trouble, it was better to find it out at once. Though at the moment he felt more like he really didn't want to know.

Relena opened her mouth, but before she could speak, a girl next to her did: 'Didn't you know, Heero? There's going to be a formal dance at school on the weekend.' She paused, probably waiting for some sign of recognition from the Gundam pilot. When none came, she added meaningfully: 'And Relena doesn't have a partner. Yet.'

'None of you have one yet either,' Relena said in an exasperated tone. 'Why don't you ask Heero?' She avoided looking at him as she said it.

Heero shrugged. 'You could always take Santio,' he suggested, raising one eyebrow ironically.

'Yes, I could ask him,' Relena declared, blushing defiantly. The girls around her, however, seemed less pleased with the suggestion. One of them turned confidingly to Heero.

'Santio's boring,' she told him. 'I mean, we all know he's been in love with Relena for years – but he's such a weakling. Relena likes the strong silent type, you know.'

A hoot of laughter came from the girls, who all seemed to be having a lot of fun. At his expense. Heero couldn't for the life of him see anything funny, and Relena looked ready to murder the girl talking to him.

'Stella!' was her anguished whisper, and she tugged at her arm. 'We have to get to class, remember?'

But Stella turned back to Heero: 'So, do you want to take Relena as your partner?'

The girls giggled delightedly while Relena looked at the floor for a second, cheeks bright pink, obviously completely embarrassed. But she soon caught herself again, looked straight at him, and announced: 'Well, I'm going now. Even if nobody else here minds being late, I do.'

She was about to walk by him when he put out a hand and gently took hold of her arm. Relena spun around and stared at him, hope and panic clashing on her face.

Now that he was holding her he could not believe he had done it. But his gesture had been prompted by the feeling of Relena's lips touching his. And now he couldn't back out of it. He had gambled everything on one tiny particle of memory. But it was one thing he could not argue with.

'I'll go with you,' he told her in a low voice.

For a second, she just stared at him. Her eyes seemed to say What on earth is going on, but finally her lips formed the tiniest smile he had ever seen on her, and she nodded.

'See you then,' she said weakly.

This time he let her and her crowd of laughing friends go. Watching the sunlight catch in Relena's gold hair, he wondered seriously to himself how something this amazing – this new – this hopeful could arise from what he had thought was the biggest mistake he had ever made.

Catherine finally had a plan of escape. By accident she had come across a hidden camera in her 'prison'.

The plant had puzzled her for awhile. After all, nobody had come to water it since she had been put here. How could it still be green? More out of boredom than anything else, she had inspected it and discovered that it was fake – and that there was an elaborately concealed glass lens sticking slightly out of the dry earth.

Now, having worked out a plan to at least leave this room - whatever else was going to happen to her after that – she picked up a chair and held it so that one of its legs was directly above the camera lens. Then, with a jerk, she brought it swiftly down.

There was a crash of glass. She had broken the camera. Now surely when they didn't receive any picture from this room they would come to investigate.

Arming herself with the chair, Catherine stationed herself on one side of the door and waited.

After wandering around aimlessly through the mostly-empty hallways in the school for a while and chatting to some girls who were skipping to go shopping downtown, Duo strolled up to a random classroom door and opened it.

Poking his head in, he addressed the teacher with a disarming grin, waved his journalist pass in her face and looked around for a comfortable seat from where he could tease people.

To his surprise, Relena was sitting in this class. Even more surprising was that she grinned cheerfully at him. Intrigued, Duo pulled up a chair at the desk beside hers. And, as soon as the teacher was immersed in her lesson again, he scribbled 'What's up?' on the margin of his notes and tipped them so that Relena could read it.

Relena grinned evilly. Pretending to take notes on the novel the class was studying, she wrote something on a slip of paper.

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo could just read it: 'How's Hilde?'

Though he showed nothing but easy cheerfulness, inside Duo was rather rattled. Did Relena know he was in contact with Hilde? Or had she just guessed? Her evil grin seemed to imply that she had definite knowledge of something.

Casually, he wrote: 'Dunno. Why?'

'I know what hotel she's staying in. Don't you think I should tell Heero?' was the answer.

Thoroughly annoyed now (especially at Hilde, Relena couldn't possibly have this information from anybody else), he wrote back: 'Yeah, that's right, run to your boyfriend. What the hell do you want?'

When Relena saw what he had written, she grinned more widely than before. Just before the bell rang, she scribbled one word.

'Information.'

Then, before Duo had time to take this in, she quickly packed her school things together and left the classroom, tossing her loose honey-blond hair behind her.

Duo glowered after her. 'Evil,' he muttered to no one in particular, grabbed his notebook, and hurried after her. He could sense months of slavery coming up.

Footsteps were approaching. Catherine tightened her grip on her missile and tensed in readiness, trying to remember every martial arts move Trowa had ever taught her.

The clicking sounds from right outside the door confirmed that soon the moment of decision would come. Then, with a final click, the lock opened and the door was thrust open.

Concealed behind the door, Catherine waited until she saw a head appear. Then, gripping the chair with both hands, she swung it right at the uniformed, masked figure, which cried out but fell. Leaping over it, she came face to face with another person, who was reaching for his gun.

Holding the chair in front of her, she cannoned into him, terror giving her the momentum to topple him. Then, trying to block out the cries for help and alarm that came from the second figure, she sped out into the hallway.

Hesitating for half a second, her eyes flickered over the doors, the staircase at one end of the hall, and the big window at the other end. She knew she could not hope to actually escape the building itself right now; too many of the armed people had been alerted. Her plan had been to hide somewhere until it was safer – but where –

There was nowhere. As the awful realization pounded in her heart, as she saw two men in uniform hurrying up the stairs, her eyes were drawn to the window. She did not know where it opened onto – how far down it was – but a last, desperate idea came to her and she started racing towards it.

Some instinct told her when to swerve – and she sensed more than saw the bullets fly past her and shatter the window. She threw herself on the floor, got up again, and sprinted the last few meters to the window, which by now had a big, ragged hole in the middle of it. For one millisecond, she fought the inhibition holding her back – then she hurled herself through the hole and into the open air.

'What the hell do you mean, information?' Duo muttered. He had caught up with Relena and was now trying to appear inconspicuous by walking slightly behind her and talking out of the corner of his mouth.

Relena, however, had no such scruples. 'You Gundam pilots are too secretive for your own good. I want to know what's going on. And this time, the whole truth, not just a short summary.' She glared at him.

Duo swore quietly. 'There is a reason why we don't tell you everything, you know.'

Brushing over this, Relena went on. 'So, what are you doing right now? Have you found out where the gundanium alloy is yet?'

'No,' admitted Duo. 'We've got our ideas, but we're not getting a lot further at the moment.' Frustration rang in his voice.

After some more less-than-subtle blackmailing on Relena's part, he finally consented to explain it all to her – but not at the school.

'Fine,' Relena stated. 'Let's go visit Hilde and talk to her in private.'

Duo shook his head disbelievingly. 'You seem so innocent and harmless, but you are such a pain. What makes you think Heero would believe you?' he added slyly.

There was no weak point there. Relena smiled to herself. 'He would,' she said confidently. 'I know he would.'

Examining the far-off look in her eyes and her smile, Duo wondered. Obviously the completely non-emotional soldier had done something to raise Relena's hopes. But what?

'Ok, then let's go,' Duo sighed, making a mental note to check on Heero as soon as this business was done.

Quatre sighed. Duo could obviously never stay in one place for more than a few minutes. He had arranged to meet him here, next to Heero's locker, so the three of them could confer in peace and inconspicuously. However, there was no sign of either Duo or Heero.

Weariness over last night's unsuccessful exploration was written on Quatre's face. Not only that, he was also worried about Dorothy. Was the curly-haired girl right, and she was nearby, depending on his help? That would mean that he had failed her. But the message and the messenger were too fishy, Quatre knew he couldn't trust them.

Suddenly – talking of the devil, Quatre thought grimly – the girl with the hazel curls clutched his arm, her eyes and tone beseeching: 'You've got to come – she's here – the most awful thing has happened – I warned her – and she won't let me get help – I don't know what to do . . .' She broke down and started sobbing.

It took Quatre a moment to get over his surprise and take in all of it. Finally he firmly grasped her arm and spoke in a low tone: 'You mean Dorothy is here?'

She looked up, and her face was wet with very real tears. Quatre wavered. Either she was an extremely good actress or – or she was telling the truth.

'She's right outside the school,' the girl sobbed. 'I told her not to come – you have to help her!' She gazed up at him in complete desperation.

Returning her gaze, Quatre made his decision. Even if it was a trap – and somehow he didn't think so anymore – it would be better to get it over with than to continually have the thought that he had not come to Dorothy's aid in her gravest need eat him alive.

'Let's go then,' he instructed her briefly, and, with a smile of gratitude through her tears, she hurriedly led him away.

They made their way to a pair of side doors that opened out onto the grounds. The girl threw them open and hurried out to a figure leaning against the wall.

Quatre stared. It was Dorothy, made unmistakable by the sweep of her long blond hair, her arched eyebrows and glittering blue eyes. Though it seemed to him as though the eyes were flickering somehow, and when she spoke, her voice wasn't the one he remembered.

'Quatre,' she said breathlessly, 'I can't believe you're here.' Then, she gave a little gasp and slid to the ground.

Strangling a cry in his throat, Quatre raced over to her limp form and turned it over. Underneath the hand she had clamped to her side, her white blouse was stained a scarlet red.

A/N: Hallelujah, this chapter is actually finished! Again, very sorry it took so long. Usual excuses. Anyway, whoever might be reading my HP fic too, I am also going to continue with that one, unlikely though it may seem at the moment. Also, I've just noticed, this chapter is pretty short. But that was a nice cliffie way to end, right? So, let's forgive and forget, shall we?

Hm. Ok, you can do the forgiving and I'll do the forgetting, I'm good at that winks.

Thanks to certain faithful reviewers. If there were more people like you around, the world would be a better place! (Maybe. Don't quote me on that.)

ri-chan/san – thanks so much for all the reviews, it's really interesting to read how you go through the whole story! Oh, as anybody who knows me on ff can tell you, I take months to update. sighs I don't mean to, but it always happens . . . I'll always keep writing though, don't worry.

blingblingbabe – sorry about that . . . I've just always imagined those two together . . . and you have to admit, it fits into the plot. Thank god Heero is not OOC, though I don't know about this chappie, I hope it's ok!

Pink Sakura – thanx, I'm looking forward to hearing from you again!

yasuru01 – nice of you to review, again SORRY about the long delay!

Arabian Knight – don't worry, you're getting your place of honour at the end of the chapter this time! (Puppy-dog eyes? Who said anything about puppy-dog eyes? looks around innocently)

Ebacusta – well, the thing with Marisa is, sometimes you can trust her and sometimes you can't, so you never know. Which is good for the plot grins. Tekkan will be butchered, rest assured.

Wildkat137 – thanks, it's great to get a response like that from so many ppl!

Nichi-chan – yea, I definitely see what you mean. But as I'm hoping to bring this story to a close sometime soon, I don't know if it will fit in . . . but thanks for the idea!

perfect solder X24 – you're out of luck, I'm the queen of not updating for months! But I did try, honestly!

Oh, look, here's Arabian Knight walking down the red carpet of honour, everybody cheering and waving . . . Hm . . . she, on the other hand, has a murderous look in her eyes and is zeroing in on ME! Spare me! Of course I will admit that the story's excellence coughs is solely due to your wise critique! makes a run for it

Anyway, remaining yours,

Shooting Jewel