I yelped and sat up suddenly in Heero's arms. He was staring at me, wondering if he could believe in what he was seeing.

"Are you—" he began.

"Yeah," I interrupted. "I'm back. Let's get out of here."

But we didn't leave immediately. Instead, he embraced me and held me so tightly, it hurt.

"You're not allowed to die either," he said, nose buried in my hair. I really didn't know what he was talking about, but I clung to him.

He helped me up and ran for Wing Zero, his hand holding onto mine like he'd never let go. I paused when I noticed the black alloy of a new mobile suit in the corner and tugged out of his grip. I checked with Heero and, when he nodded in agreement to my vigorous pointing, I ran over and climbed the framework to the cockpit.

Heero had Zero up and running as I secured myself in the new mobile suit and took off early to cover my boarding. I fired up the engine and the load-up told me the name of this suit was Hades. Appropriate, I thought, for one who has just returned from death.

Heero and I took off into the black with the frontier of combat in the distance. The advancing Aria army received word from Heero that the defense system was down and all allies off the station. We were a part of the group that attacked the power cores. We helped the others rock the moon as the legendary base was destroyed, and all of outer space felt our tremor.

This is for my father, I thought. He was reaching out from death in every way, righting the wrongs. He gave us this base, this mobile suit—he gave me life. If I could be his instrument, I would be happy with that.

Treize, Une, and the other officials had escaped the base, but its brief moment of operation was ended in one night. By Christmas morning, the fighting had stopped and OZ was not-so-gracefully accepting a loss.

Back on Aria, we all came together with hugs and shouts of victory. Even Wufei accepted an embrace. When I saw Ania, she was racing toward me and nearly tackled me in a tight hug. A memory I'd once forgotten resurfaced in my mind as I hugged her.

"In just a few months, you'll have a baby sister, Saia," my father had once told me. I reached out and laid my hand flat on my mother's tummy; the tiny creature inside kicked, which caused me to giggle. "Her name is Ania," my father had said. "-ia means 'never without'. Sa is 'strength' and An is 'wisdom'. And now that you are together—and if you always stay together—you will never be without. Do you understand?"

I had nodded yes. I understood just as must as a three-year-old could.

"You must protect her no matter what, Saia. And she will protect you."

At least I had been able to honor one of my father's wishes—that she and I remain together. He was right; as long as we had each other, we were never without.

"You'll never believe what happened to me," I whispered as I held her. She shook her head and I felt her arms tense around me.

"Chona, I don't give a damn! Just don't ever do that to me again!"

I nodded and smiled a bit.

"There's a lot we have to talk about…"

"I know," she replied quietly. "I know."

When she released me, she narrowed her gaze on Heero. He waited expectantly for the chastisement, but she only gave him a thumbs up. He smiled.

The two of them stood silently side by side as the rest of us jumped and cheered and celebrated. Even as Duo and I hugged and flapped our arms and swung around, they remained as they were—watching happily. They were the only ones who knew what had happened and, quite possible, the only ones who understood it. I don't know why I was landed in such a dream, but I knew I had people I wanted to protect. I think she understood that as well. I think that's why she met me there, on the path between life and death.

Sally walked up behind Noin and came to stand beside her.

"So you had a feeling about this," she said.

Noin grinned.

"But it all worked out in the end, just like you said," Noin reminded her.

"I said that?"

"You did at that, Sally." She exhaled her relief. "You did at that."

Three years later…

Quatre's smiling face beamed at the recorder.

"Wufei is spending Christmas with the Preventers, Trowa is still on L3-099C with Katherine, and I'll be with Maganac on L4 a bit longer. I hope you all are doing well, and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys again after the holiday!" he said. "Send me a mail when you can and let me know how things are in Antilles."

The video ended and Duo smiled.

"Looks like Quatre's having a good time, but missing everyone too much," Duo said as he moved into the living room where Ania was sitting with her cup of tea. He kissed her temple and plopped down next to her. "We'd better send him some mail before he thinks something bad has happened."

"He's not the only one. It feels weird having such an empty place. I miss everyone, too."

"It's not so bad being all alone, is it?" he prompted, nuzzling her neck. She giggled and tapped her forehead against his.

Duo sighed and ran his fingers through her long hair, appreciating the way it fell in silky streams and framed her porcelain face. Those dangerous red-orange eyes of hers peered at him underneath her long lashes and made him feel tingly inside.

"You're so beautiful," he said quietly and kissed her tenderly.

The laptop on the coffee table began beeping with a live call. Duo answered it and smiled when he recognized the person on the other end.

"Hey, hey!" he said. "Long time, no see. How's it going?"

"Doing alright," I replied. "It's cold, but beautiful. You're really missing out, Duo. We've got a snowstorm warning, which could potentially bury the cabin. There's already three feet out there as it is. Think about the abominable missions we'd undergo."

"What can I say? Traveling is no good right now." He eyed Ania, who smiled.

"Wow, you're getting really big!" I said, taking mental measurements of her stomach, which had swollen up to epic proportions. "Are you sure there's only one little Duo in there?"

"I really hope so," she replied. "There's only so much I can handle… How's Heero?"

"Good!" I replied. "He's really enjoying the break. We built a snowman the other day. We wound up outfitting him for combat then made other snowmen to accompany him, enemy snowmen, and then had a little battle." I went back to the memory fighting Heero's team of snowmen and resisted laughter.

"Who won?" she asked.

"You have to ask?" Duo quirked one brow. I sighed.

"She just wants to hear the humiliating truth," I said. Duo agreed. Ania still hadn't gotten over that chess game she'd once played against the perfect soldier. "He took out my snow-team with model C4, but I'm pretty sure there was a real grenade involved along the way. I managed to wire the heads off of several of his snow-soldiers, but he took me down round four, and—between you and me—I'm pretty sure he was toying with me three of those rounds."

Ania and Duo glanced at each other. She could tell he was maddeningly jealous of the fun they were having and couldn't resist laughing at his expense.

"Next year," she promised, "as long as you don't put me in this predicament again."

Duo accepted that and eyed me.

"So how did he take you down?" he asked with a smirk. I blushed then threatened to hang up and he withdrew the question.

We talked a bit longer and I wished Ania a healthy Christmas, demanding she not have the baby until I could get home. She told me that if she went into labor before I was home, she would never forgive me and that if I valued my life, I wouldn't miss it. I had only one response to that: yes ma'am.

We all said goodbye and that we'd talk soon and then I hung up.

When I went out to the living room, Heero was standing at the window watching the snow falling outside. The sun had almost finished setting and I was grateful for the fire blazing full force behind him. I came to stand at his side and laid my head on his shoulder.

"How's Ania and Duo?" he asked.

"They're great," I replied. "Ania is getting so big, she looks like she could pop at any sudden movements."

He wrapped his arms around me.

"Did you tell her…?" he asked, gaze dropping down to my flat stomach.

"Not yet," I replied. "I'll wait until after she has the baby."

He placed his hand on my tummy.

"Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?"

"A girl," I said and he cut his eyes up to me.

"It's a boy," he said. "It's definitely a boy."

He leaned down and kissed me then pulled me into a hug. I stared out the window at the darkness, at the trees in the distance. The heads of two mobile suits—Wing Zero and Hades—were peaking out of the top of the canopy.

I wasn't sure what the future held—war or peace. But there would always be the Gundams to protect the earth and the colonies, and there would always be two crazy sisters to fight beside them with all of their strength and to love them with all of their hearts.

The year was After Colony 195 when Ania and I found our family—the one lost in the past and the one forever tangled in our future.