A.C. 206
Heero shot another enemy soldier and laughed wildly. "You’re all dead meat," he said. "None of you can escape me."
He heard footsteps approaching and hastily shut down the sniper game he’d installed on his computer. Bringing up the latest Preventers report, he began typing diligently. The door opened and Relena stuck her head in. "Are you sure you don’t want to visit the Mars project with us? Everyone’s going except you and Wufei."
"I’ve got things to do here, Relena," he said. "I’ll go to Mars next time, okay?"
"Okay. Take good care of the children." She shut the door.
"What?!" Heero shouted, bolting up from his chair. He ran out into the hall. "Relena, wait, what do you mean, ‘take care of the children’?"
She looked at him. "We can’t take them with us. It’s too dangerous for children there."
"But why me?"
"We’re not going to leave them with Wufei. He doesn’t know the first thing about childcare."
"Neither do I."
"But the kids have seen you a lot more than they’ve seen him. It would be like leaving them with a complete stranger. Besides, you probably won’t even see them. Between Raphael’s nanny and the twins’ nanny, I’m sure they’ll be able to take care of the children adequately."
"I..." Heero sighed. If he wasn’t going with, the least he could do would be to watch the kids. "Okay, Relena."
~Two Weeks Later~
He winced and sighed as the children ran by his room again, shouting at the top of their lungs. They hadn’t caused too much trouble so far, but when they did... He looked at the calendar again, but it only confirmed what he already knew. There were still two weeks until Relena and the others came back. Why had they decided to go to Mars for a month?
He flipped on the TV, but the only thing he could find was soap operas or mindless game shows. Suddenly, explosions rocked the building and sirens made their belated announcement of attack. A man’s face popped up on the TV screen. "This is Alan of the White Fang Remnant. We declare war on the Earth and we’re starting with the Sanc Kingdom. Prepare to be annihilated."
Heero ran from the room. He had to get to Wing Zero. More explosions, and he was thrown to the ground. There was a rumbling sound as part of the building collapsed. He got up again and had only taken a few steps when a high-pitched, frightened wail reached his ears. The kids, he thought, and without hesitation altered course toward the sound of the voice.
His heart stopped as he realized that the voice had come from the part that had collapsed, the kids’ playroom. Had they been in there? "Hello?" he called, scrambling over debris. He stumbled and almost stepped on a human hand sticking out from under a pile of bricks. It was an adult hand, and Heero guessed it was one of the nannies. It didn’t move when he nudged it with a foot, so he continued searching through the rubble for the children. Muffled banging drew him toward a big wooden chest, probably the kids’ toy box. Bricks and chunks of ceiling weighed the lid down. He cleared it off and lifted the lid. The kids blinked up at him, frightened but unhurt. "How’d you get in here?" he asked.
"Nanny Jenny put us in here when there was those loud sounds before," Josiah said as Heero lifted the kids out. "She told us not to move or nothin’."
"She saved your lives," Heero said as he surveyed the destruction. He wondered if Jenny was the one under the bricks. A subtle, rhythmic rumble began to shake the earth. "C’mon, we have to get back inside," he said as he guided them back to the portion of the building still standing. Thankfully there was a fairly easy path that took them away from the hand.
The children had just gotten out of sight when the source of the rumble appeared. Two Virgo mobile suits walked through the area. Heero froze, trying to not attract attention, but it was too late. One of the suits swung its gun toward him and he dove inside, the blast pitching him farther into the hall. Raphael was crying, and the other children stared at him, wide-eyed with fear. He got up, hissing at the pain in his right leg. He glanced down at it and saw the blood trailing down his leg and dyeing his sock red.
"You’re bleeding, Uncle Heero," Trevor said.
"I noticed," Heero replied, ignoring the "uncle" for once even though he’d corrected the children every time they’d called him that in the past couple of weeks. The only child he was really an uncle to was Raphael. He found a bathroom and washed out the deep cut, using strips of a towel to bandage it. He walked back out into the hall, the children trailing close behind him.
"What are we gonna do, Unca Heero?" Mariana asked.
"I told you--" he began, but then looked at them and sighed. "Never mind. We have to get to a car so we can get out of here. They’re going to tear this place down."
"What about Nanny Jenny and Nanny Emma?"
"They...they already escaped," Heero said, and started walking down the hall. He didn’t get very far before the ground shook from more explosions.
He crouched in the hallway, the children huddled next to him. Trevor, Duo’s five-year-old son, looked up at him through brown bangs. The boy was a carbon copy of his father, with the same violet eyes, long brown hair pulled back in a braid, and bubbly personality. "What’s goin’ on, Uncle Heero? Is it a war?"
"What do you know about wars?"
"Teacher told us all about the colony war and how the gundams saved us. Are they gonna save us again?"
"Gundams..." Heero muttered, looking down at the kids and making some rapid calculations. The cockpit of Wing Zero was small, but so were the kids. Trevor was the largest, although Mariana and Josiah, Quatre’s four-year-old twins, were not much smaller. Raphael, Zechs and Noin’s two-year-old son, completed the group. He looked up at Heero solemnly, not crying anymore but apparently ready to at any moment. His ice blue eyes, so much like his father’s, were made more startling by the black hair he had inherited from his mother.
The twins gazed at Heero too. They both had Quatre’s hair, but while Josiah had his eyes, Mariana had her mother’s gray ones. The pale hair/gray eyes combination gave her a strange, ethereal beauty that would surely make her a knockout when she was older. They sat against the wall together, understanding enough about the situation to know that they should be quiet and patient.
Three explosions rocked the building, and Raphael’s bottom lip began to tremble. Heero stood up and lifted him into his arms. He looked down at the three other children. "Stay close to me, okay? We’re gonna get out of here." They nodded and stood up.
He walked down the hall, trusting the children to follow. They walked down several flights of stairs and down another hall. He glanced back at the kids. He had set a fast pace and they looked a little tired, but no one complained.
He stopped in the middle of the hall. "Izzat a elevator, Unca Heero?" Josiah asked.
"Yeah."
"Where are the buttons?"
"It’s a special elevator," he replied, taking a key from a chain around his neck and inserting it into a keyhole next to the elevator. When he turned the key, the doors opened. He put the key back around his neck and he and the children stepped onto the elevator. When the doors closed, the elevator started downward. The doors opened when it stopped and Heero stopped out onto a catwalk high above a hangar floor.
"Whoa," Trevor said in awe as he walked out of the elevator with the twins. "It’s a gundam!"
"That it is," Heero agreed as they walked to the mobile suit. He opened the cockpit door and climbed in.
"We’re not gonna fit," Trevor said.
"You’ll have to squeeze together on the floor," Heero said. "I think this is the only way we can get out of here."
Mariana climbed in and sat down, tucking herself against Heero’s legs. Josiah and Trevor climbed in, too, managing to squeeze together on the floor. Heero set Raphael on Trevor’s lap. "Hang on to him," he said, hitting buttons to start up Wing Zero’s operating systems. "Don’t let him touch anything."
"Okay, Uncle Heero," Trevor said, hugging Raphael to his chest. Taking the controls, Heero turned the gundam and it made its stately, ground-shaking way across the hangar to the doors. They opened and brilliant sunshine streamed in, highlighting and glinting off the metal as Heero moved Wing Zero outside.
Almost immediately, they were attacked, explosions rocking Wing Zero but not strong enough to make it fall. Raphael started crying. "It’s okay, it’s okay," Trevor said, hugging him. "Don’t cry, Rafe, nobody’s gonna hurt you."
"Hang on," Heero said, one hand tapping in the code to transform to bird mode. "We’re going to have to get out of here fast and I don’t want you getting hurt." The kids nodded and braced themselves, and Heero hit the ignition, rocketing them away from the pursuing mobile suits.
"You didn’ wanna fight, Unca Heero?" Mariana asked, looking up at him from where her head rested against his left leg.
"It’s more important for you to be safe," Heero replied. He glanced down at her and she continued to stare at him, suddenly looking wise beyond her four years of life. "You’re a strange kid," he said, trying to keep his tone light.
"Mama thinks I’m like Daddy."
Heero remembered Quatre’s latent empathic ability. The soul of space, he called it. That same indefinable quality did seem to emanate from the little girl. "I think your mama’s right." She smiled. "Can you tell what I’m feeling?" he asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the extent of her abilities.
She closed her eyes as her arms circled his leg. "Tired," she said finally. "Afraid for us. Afraid of...losing us." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Afraid of me?"
"No," he replied.
She climbed into his lap and rested her head against his chest. "I’m tired too." He looked at the other children. Raphael was asleep on Trevor’s lap. Josiah was also asleep and snoring softly. Heero snorted. Only children could be wide-awake one minute and asleep the next.
"Where are we goin’?" Trevor asked.
"I’m not sure. Somewhere safe."
"Okay," he said simply, and closed his eyes.
* * * * *
The group on Mars stared silently at the news report covering the destroyed and occupied Sanc Kingdom. "All we’ve worked for," Relena said softly. "Everything’s just...gone."
"Are you going to have to fight again?" Hilde asked from where she pressed herself against Duo’s side.
"I don’t know, babe," he replied, hugging her with one arm.
The news camera panned over the remains of the palace, and Relena burst into tears. "Oh no, oh Heero..."
"Trevor," Duo said, blinking back tears as Hilde started to sob.
"Josiah and Mariana," Regina added, burying her face in Quatre’s shoulder. He held her tightly, the tears streaming unheeded from his eyes.
"Raphael," Noin finished, her voice a quiet but mournful wail.
There was silence for a few moments, then Zechs said, "Perhaps we’re underestimating Heero Yuy. If he had any kind of warning, he might have gotten out alive."
"Yeah," Sally Po added. "That guy is amazing. I’ll bet he got out of there safely, and with the kids. You shouldn’t give up hope yet."
"Do you really think so?" Relena asked, sniffling softly.
"Of course," Dorothy said, sitting beside her. "You know how strong and resourceful he is. I’m positive that if there was a way for him to escape, he would have done it."
"He had Wing Zero hidden away somewhere," Relena said, prompting startled looks from the others. "What?" she asked.
"It was unusual to hear you say the name," Trowa explained.
"Oh..." Relena said, then shrugged. "Heero used to talk about it, so it’s just something I remembered. Anyway, I don’t think he knew that I knew it was still around."
"But if he took Wing Zero, he couldn’t have saved the kids, there wouldn’t have been enough room," Sally said.
Dorothy suddenly started giggling, and to everyone’s surprise a light blush crept over Trowa’s cheeks. "Oh, I don’t know about that, Miss Sally," she said. "There’s enough room for two...mmm...fairly active full-sized adults in a gundam’s cockpit."
"That’s enough about that," Noin said firmly. "What do we do now?"
"We have to get back to the colonies," Quatre said. "Our gundams are there and we might need them."
"We can stop at L5 and get Wufei," Sally said, "and then go on to L4."
"Heavyarms is at L4 with Quatre’s gundam," Trowa put in.
"So I’d just have to hop over to L2 and get Deathscythe," Duo said.
"Tallgeese is ready to go," Zechs said. He looked at Noin. "Lu--" he began, but she cut him off.
"I know, Zechs, I know. This time I agree with you. If Raphael’s okay, someone’s going to have to take care of him. I’ll have to leave this fight to you."
"So we’re meeting at L4?" Sally asked. The others nodded. "Okay, let’s go."
* * * * *
The polite bleep of an alert brought Heero out of a light doze. The scanner had detected a small village half-hidden in the forest below. It’s a good a place as any, Heero thought to himself. The people would probably welcome a tired gundam pilot and four small children, and the forest would be an ideal place to hide Wing Zero.
He transformed the gundam back into the mobile suit mode, and the shifting of the mechanisms woke the kids.
"Unca Heero?" Josiah questioned sleepily.
"There’s a little town. I’m going to stop there and see if they’ll help us out."
He landed Wing Zero and by the time he had shut down the systems and opened the cockpit door, a small crowd of people had gathered a short distance away. He helped the kids get down off the gundam with the winch rope and came last, holding Raphael in one arm. The rope retracted above arm’s reach when he let go of it. He walked toward the crowd, the children following.
"Can I help you?" a man asked, obviously confused by the presence of the children.
"Invaders destroyed the Sanc Kingdom," Heero said. "We need someplace to stay for a while."
"Of course you can stay," a woman said, overriding whatever the man was about to say. She walked over to them and took Raphael from Heero’s arms. "Poor kids. I’m sure you took good care of them, but I bet they’re hungry."
"Yeah, probably," Heero said. He turned and looked at Trevor, Mariana, and Josiah. "You kids stay here. I have to hide Wing Zero in case someone comes searching for us."
"Why don’t I take the children to my home while you’re gone?" the woman said. "My name’s Marie, and I live around that corner, third house on the right."
Heero nodded. "I’ll meet you there."
He hid Wing Zero in a heavily forested area and, satisfied that any mobile suits that happened to fly over wouldn’t be able to spot it, walked back to the town. He found Marie’s house and knocked on the door. Marie opened it and let him in. "They’re enjoying a late lunch," she said, smiling. "Such polite children, even the baby. Are they all yours?"
"None of them are mine, actually," Heero said. "Some of my friends went to visit the new Mars project and I agreed to watch the children for them."
"You like kids?"
"Not until recently."
She laughed. "Believe it or not, I didn’t like kids either, until I got pregnant." She walked into the kitchen, and he followed. "If you’re hungry, I can make you something. A chicken sandwich, maybe?"
"That would be nice, thank you." He sat down at the table where the kids were eating.
"What are you gonna do now, Uncle Heero?" Trevor asked between bites of his sandwich.
"I think we should go to the colonies. I’m sure your parents are trying to get back home, and you’d be safer up there anyway."
"We could go to my house," Josiah said.
Heero nodded. "That’s a good idea," he said. "They might go there to make plans."
"Make plans for what?" Marie asked as she set the sandwich in front of him. "Is another war starting?"
"The only ones who will fight the invaders are the gundams," Heero said, looking at her. "But unfortunately that doesn’t mean civilian lives won’t be lost."
Marie nodded as Heero bit into the sandwich. "I know. I just thought that wars were over forever. I’d hoped so, anyway."
"We all did," Heero said. "Except for the White Fang Remnant, apparently."
They said no more about the subject until everyone had finished eating. "Do you know if there’s a spaceport close by?" Heero asked. "I need a shuttle that can transport passengers and large cargo."
"You’re taking that...abomination with you?" a new, male voice asked.
"Oh, Richard," Marie said in a scolding tone to the man who had come into the room behind Heero.
"Don’t ‘Oh, Richard’ me, Marie. If it weren’t for those mobile suits, someone wouldn’t have started another stupid war."
"You’re probably right," Heero said calmly, "but right now the gundams are going to be needed if someone can’t negotiate a peace with the White Fang Remnant."
"Hopefully someone will be reasonable. Do you think the Vice Foreign Minister will be leading the negotiations?" Marie asked.
Heero smiled a little. "Most likely, if the Remnant chooses to negotiate. In any case, the children are safer in space and I’m not leaving Wing Zero on Earth while I’m gone."
In a few days, with the reluctant help of Richard, Heero was able to secure a large passenger/cargo shuttle. On the day of their trip, Marie drove the children to the spaceport while Heero flew overhead in Wing Zero. He landed and loaded the gundam while the children climbed into the passenger compartment and strapped themselves in. He hopped out of the shuttle and shook hands with Marie. "Thanks for your help," he said.
"Don’t mention it," Marie replied. "Take good care of yourself and the kids."
"I’ll do my best," he said, and climbed back into the shuttle. He made sure that the kids were secure, then sat in the pilot’s seat, strapped himself in. He fired up the shuttle’s engines and soon they were racing down the runway and blasting off into space.
* * * * *
When the Mars group finally got to L4, they docked the shuttle and made their way to the Winner mansion. Quatre opened the door and they walked in. "Master Quatre, Mistress Regina, it’s so good to have you home," the butler said, greeting them at the door.
"Thanks, Julian," Regina replied. Despite their hopeful resolve when they had set out a few days earlier, the absence of good news from Earth had brought their spirits down, and her voice was tired.
"You have guests that arrived two days ago. They are currently in the parlor."
"Okay, thank you," Quatre said, walking toward the parlor with the others straggling behind. In the doorway to the parlor, he stopped, a smile taking over his face. "Mariana! Josiah!" he cried, running into the room. The others heard him and bolted toward the room. When they got there, he was kneeling on the floor, one arm around each of the twins as they hugged his neck. Trevor was looking eagerly toward the door, waiting to see his parents, and Heero was standing behind him with Raphael in his arms.
In moments, all the parents and children were reunited, and Relena had her arms clasped around Heero’s neck in a near stranglehold. "I was so afraid...everything was destroyed," she said, her voice muffled against his shirt.
"I’m okay, Relena," he said softly, holding her almost as tightly as she was holding him. "We got away safely."
"Emma and Jenny?" Noin asked.
Heero looked over at her and shook his head. "They were the ones who saved the kids. They put them in a sturdy chest before the roof fell."
"Sacrificed their lives for the children...I wish there was some way to thank them," Quatre said.
"What’s going on down there?" Zechs asked.
"It’s a group called the White Fang Remnant. They’ve declared war on the Earth and I guess they decided to start by attempting to eliminate the origin of peace between Earth and the colonies. A man named Alan made the announcement, but I have no idea whether he’s the leader or not."
Zechs’ lips thinned. "The White Fang Remnant. I thought there weren’t enough of them left to form a remnant."
"I suppose it’s time to take center stage again, huh, Miss Relena?" Dorothy said.
"It seems so. I hope they’ll be willing to negotiate a peace," Relena replied.
"They destroyed the Sanc Kingdom," Duo said. "That doesn’t sound like they want any kind of peace."
"We still have to try."
After some food, showers, and sleep, the group awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to begin contact with the invaders. On a broad frequency to Earth, Relena began speaking. "This is Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian with a message for the White Fang Remnant. Please do not start another war. I’m sure that any problems or grievances you have can be addressed and solved with peaceful negotiations. War does not solve problems, it only creates more. Please, I beg you to consider the lives of others and choose peace rather than battle." She looked at Heero and made a face. "I sound like a parrot." He only smiled.
A man’s face popped up on the screen. "Well, Miss Darlian. We thought we killed you with our assault, but apparently not. We have no intention of negotiating for peace," he said with a sneer. "Our intention is to dominate the earth under colonial rule like the earth had dominated us for so long."
"But the colonies don’t want domination!" she cried. "We’ve all tried to learn from mistakes, rather than repeat them. For you to attack Earth makes you no better than the Alliance and Oz were ten years ago."
"That’s not what your brother thought when he headed the original White Fang, now was it?"
"And how exactly would you know what I thought?" Zechs asked, stepping into view behind Relena’s chair.
"C--Commander Milliardo!" the man exclaimed, paling. "We thought you were dead!"
"Alan Quinze Barton. Following in your father’s footsteps, I see." Alan only stuttered something unintelligible, so Zechs went on. "I never intended to win that war or to destroy Earth. The only reason I fought was so that everyone would learn how stupid war really is and would strive for peace wholeheartedly. But unfortunately I seem to have failed, at least as far as you are concerned."
Alan seemed to falter, then pounded his fist on an unseen object. "This is our destiny and we will not be denied! The earth will be under our control!" Before anyone could reply, the screen went black.
"I really hate to say it, but I think the only way we’re going to win this is in battle," Duo said.
"I feel like I’ve failed," Relena said.
"It’s not your fault, Relena," Heero said. "These guys just want a fight."
"Then let’s give them one!" Wufei said.
The other men nodded. Noin sat at the computer and typed in a series of rapid commands. "According to available sources, the Remnant is still within the Sanc Kingdom borders," she said. "If you guys moved fast, you might be able to defeat them before they take over any more territory."
Heero nodded. "That would be best. We need to minimize civilian losses."
"And we need to go before the people there get involved," Quatre added.
After a long, tearful parting, Zechs and the gundam pilots loaded their mobile suits onto shuttles and headed off for the earth. The girlfriends, wives, and children watched from the viewing port until the gleam of the shuttles was indistinguishable from the stars.
"Is Daddy coming back?" Josiah asked.
"I’m sure he will, sweetheart," Regina said. "They’ll all come home safe and sound real soon."
~Five Months Later~
"Message from the guys," Noin said as she entered the living room of the Winner mansion. "They’re doing okay, but they’re getting tired. The battles just won’t stop."
"I didn’t think this war would take so long," Regina said.
"They’re restrained by the fact that they’re trying not to kill people," Relena replied, "but you’re right, it’s taking such a long time."
"On an interesting side note, Regina," Noin added, "your father’s company’s profits have doubled since the battles started."
"What?" Regina asked, frowning. "His company made mobile suits. Unless he changed what he’s producing, the only way he’d be making profits was if he was making mobile suits for someone."
"You don’t think he’s making suits for the Remnant, do you?" Hilde asked.
"If he can make a profit, he’ll do anything. He has no loyalty or honor," Regina replied. She got up and went to the computer terminal. "Ha," she said after a moment of typing. "My code still gets me in."
"In what?" Dorothy asked as she and the others gathered around Regina.
"The company files. Mobile suit factories are working at one hundred percent," she said, pointing to some figures. "And there’s something else. Intracompany notes refer to some sort of big project. It’s expected to be completed shortly, too."
"What do you think it is?" Relena asked.
"I don’t know. I could go find out."
"You mean, go to Earth?"
"Yeah."
"Won’t that be dangerous?" Hilde asked.
"Probably. I wouldn’t be able to take the kids with me."
"We could take care of them," Dorothy said.
"This is starting to worry me," Regina said. "All these notes refer to ‘the buyer’, and only in the vaguest terms. They really want to keep who they’re selling this special project to a secret."
"So you’re thinking..." Noin said.
"A special mobile suit, possibly gundam-quality."
"Can he do that?" she asked, shocked.
"If someone designs it, he can build it. I have to go see what he’s up to." She looked at the others, and they nodded.
"Let’s do it," Noin said.
In an hour, Regina was ready to go. She stood at the shuttle airlock and hugged her children. "I’ll be back as soon as I can," she said. "You two be good for your aunts."
"We will," Josiah said.
"Be careful, Mommy," Mariana said.
"I will," she replied, and released them. They stepped back and took Dorothy and Relena’s hands.
"Don’t do anything stupid," Noin said.
Regina grinned. "Of course not." Then she stepped into the shuttle and shut the door. She sat in the pilot’s seat, strapped herself in, and blasted toward Earth. She grinned at her reflection in the glass. Ever since Quatre had taught her how to fly, piloting a shuttle had been one of her greatest pleasures. This day was no different, no matter how serious her mission was.
When she landed at the spaceport, her father and brother were there to meet her. "I never thought you’d come to visit," her father said.
She shrugged. "Well, things are going well at home, so I thought I’d revisit some of my childhood haunts." She smiled at her brother. "Good afternoon, Jason." He frowned at her, and she made her smile sweeter than before. She was baiting him, but she couldn’t help it. He’d been pissed when she married Quatre, and she knew it was because she’d finally done something he couldn’t top. She had married the richest person in space, and no available woman anywhere had half as much money. Her father had been thrilled when he found out about the fish she had landed, but his sudden affection hadn’t fooled her. No money went his way, and gradually he stopped trying to be the father he had never been before.
"You didn’t bring the children?" he asked.
"I didn’t think it was safe, what with the current unrest on Earth and all."
"Oh, yes, I suppose it isn’t very safe. Well, shall we go home?"
She nodded and followed them to a limo. They got in and the driver took them to the Torres mansion.
Regina survived a few hours in the company of her father, brother, and her brother’s new wife, Michelle. After trying to follow Michelle’s scatter-brained conversation, she almost felt sorry for her brother. It couldn’t be easy to live with this woman. Afterward she wandered the grounds, gradually making her way toward the mobile suit factories on the far side of the estate.
It was full dark when she got there, found an unlocked door, and slipped inside. She was in an office. It was illuminated by light coming from the open door that led to the factory. She peeked out the door and saw crews busy at work constructing mobile suits. It’s a bad thing when my father is the biggest slimeball I know, she thought, ducking back into the office.
She went back outside and walked to the next building. All the doors were locked, but none had a deadbolt, so with a credit card and some jiggling of the handle, one of the doors popped open. It led to another office-like room with a door that led to the main factory. This factory was quiet and dark. She walked out onto the main floor and flipped a light switch on the wall next to the door. Bright lights came up and illuminated the single mobile suit in the factory. She gasped and murmured, "Gundam-quality indeed..." The suit was dark blue and there were some other alterations, but this suit had obviously been based on Epyon. It looked complete to her. Looks like I got here just in time, she thought.
She flipped the lights off and walked back to the room she had come from. She was about to leave when she heard voices and the lights came on in the factory. She walked back to the door leading to the hangar and opened it a crack, peeking through. Her father and another man were walking to the mobile suit. "Are you sure you got all the bugs out of the system?" the man asked. "Mr. Barton is getting impatient."
"I’m sure," her father said. "We’ve gone over it fifty times and everything checks out."
"It had better," the man said. He got into the mobile suit and started the systems. Everything seemed to go okay for a few minutes, but then the mobile suit began to weave from side to side, arms flailing. It launched into the air and slammed into a wall, then fell to the ground. The cockpit door opened and the man jumped out. "You didn’t fix it!" he shouted.
"We did!" her father shouted back. "We’ve been over and over that suit and replaced or reprogrammed anything that could have been malfunctioning! Maybe you just don’t know how to pilot a suit like this!"
"If you don’t get this suit working properly, Mr. Barton is going to retract his promise of protection and you’re going to be in as much trouble as the rest of this God-forsaken planet!"
"Don’t you threaten me!" her father said. "If it weren’t for my mobile suit factories, those gundams would have defeated you long ago!"
They went back out the way they came in, still arguing. The mobile suit remained collapsed against the wall. When it was quiet, Regina slipped through the door and walked over to the mobile suit. She looked up into its face and smiled a little. "I don’t know why you’re screwing up, but I appreciate it. You’re probably keeping my husband and his friends alive." She laid a hand on top of one of the suit’s massive ones. "My name is Regina Winner. I was a suit pilot once, a long time ago." She realized she was talking to an inanimate object, but it was like the first time she’d seen Deathscythe. She had a compulsion to introduce herself to it. To her surprise, the suit’s eyes lit up briefly and a soft beeping drew her attention to the cockpit. She climbed in, and the door closed. The screen in front of her lit up and the word "NAME" appeared. MY NAME? she typed.
MY NAME, it printed.
YOUR NAME? she asked.
MY NAME, it printed again.
She gasped in sudden realization. They had created an artificial intelligence and put it in the mobile suit. "But they didn’t name you," she said aloud. She laughed. "So that’s why you keep screwing up. You’re mad at them for trying to use you without being kind enough to name you."
She leaned back in the seat and tried to think of a name for the suit. An image of the suit as she had first seen it popped up in her mind. Huge, imposing, the wings curving from above the head almost to the ground. Like an avenging angel, she thought, then smiled. She had a name. ARCHANGEL, she typed.
VOICE RECOGNITION? it asked.
YES, she replied.
PLEASE SPEAK, it printed.
"This is Regina Winner. I’m twenty-six years old, my husband is Quatre and I have twin children, Mariana and Josiah. Apparently, I have also become the pilot of choice for the mobile suit Archangel."
VOICE RECOGNITION ACTIVATED, it printed. The screen blanked for a second, then showed the hangar. She realized all the systems were up and running. Archangel was hers to command.
She took the controls and brought the mobile suit to its feet. "Let’s blow this joint," she said, and turned it toward the far wall. One missile made a hole big enough to walk two mobile suits through. She went outside and turned toward the other factory. She walked over to the big doors and dug Archangel’s hands in, ripping one out of place, then walked into the factory. The workers were huddled against one another at the far end. She activated the external speaker. "You all have five minutes to get out of here before I blow this place up. I’m sure you can all make it without trampling each other."
They were already moving as she spoke, but she waited the full five minutes before leaving the factory. She launched into the air, then turned and sent four missiles into the factory. It blossomed into a fiery explosion. She went back to Archangel’s factory and used the infrared scan to make sure no one was hiding there. It was clear, and four missiles took care of that factory, as well. "So much for the Remnant’s mobile suit supply," she said aloud. "Let’s get out of here, Archangel." The suit shifted to flight mode and she flew away from the destroyed factories.
* * * * *
Heero glanced wearily at the readouts and was slightly heartened by the display. Two-thirds of the enemy mobile suits had been damaged beyond use and their pilots had either escaped or were waiting in the suits for the battle to end. "Looks like we’re gonna win this one," Wufei said, echoing his own thoughts.
"Yeah," he replied. "Trowa, how’s it going?"
"Okay," Trowa said. "Bullets are low but not critical."
"Let’s try to finish this, then."
With a chorus of affirmatives, the gundam pilots plunged back into the battle.
In the thick of the battle, Quatre raised one of Sandrock’s heat shorters in preparation for cutting the legs off of one of the enemy mobile suits. "Quatre!" Trowa shouted as his cockpit gave a belated warning of the three mobile suits behind him. They fired simultaneously, causing Sandrock to collapse to one knee.
"Are you okay, Quatre?" Heero asked.
"I’m fine," he replied, "just a little shaken." He moved the controls to get Sandrock back to its feet, but nothing happened. A little frantically, he tried to make anything move, but there was no response. "I can’t move!" he cried. "They must’ve hit something vital!"
"Don’t worry, Quatre, I’m coming," Duo said. Deathscythe started toward him from across the battlefield.
But like a pack of wolves scenting wounded prey, the enemy suits began to close in on Quatre. He desperately worked the controls, trying to get some response of his gundam, but nothing was working. I’m dead, he thought, and closed his eyes.
"What the hell?!" several voices cried in unison. The alarms in his cockpit were beeping loudly and he could hear explosions, but Sandrock wasn’t even shaking. He opened his eyes and they widened as he caught the view on the screen. An unfamiliar mobile suit stood next to him, wings extended over his gundam and shielding it from the enemy suits’ blasts.
The others finished off the last of the enemy suits, and the mobile suit stepped away, wings folding against its back.
"You okay, Quatre?" Duo asked.
"I’m fine; I’m not even injured. Who is that?"
"I don’t think anybody knows," Heero replied. "Zechs?"
"Haven’t a clue, although the suit is...uncomfortably familiar."
"Yeah," Heero said.
"Epyon," Duo said finally, voicing the name they had all been thinking.
"It’s an enemy," Wufei said decisively. "Let’s get rid of it."
"Hold on, Wufei. If it protected Quatre, it can’t be an enemy," Trowa said.
The cockpit of the mysterious suit opened and the pilot stepped out onto the platform. The gentle curves of the hips and chest made it obvious that the pilot was not a man.
"A woman?" Wufei asked in disbelief. The pilot stood there a moment, then reached to the back of her head and pulled something. Long hair cascaded down and moved in the gentle breeze.
"Regina!" Quatre shouted joyfully. He opened the cockpit door and scrambled out of Sandrock as she lowered herself to the ground with the winch rope. They ran toward each other and hugged.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I’m fine," he replied. "Where’d you come from? How’d you get that suit?"
"I’ll tell you when the others get here, okay?"
"Okay."
"Hey, Quatre!" Duo shouted from above. Quatre looked up and Duo pointed toward Sandrock.
"I guess they want me back in Sandrock," Quatre said. "We’re on channel twelve for communications."
"Okay," Regina said, and they went back to their mobile suits.
"--talk when we get back to base," Heero was saying when she flipped to channel twelve. "Regina, are you with us?"
"Yep," she replied.
"You and I will carry Quatre’s gundam back to our base. Duo and Zechs are going to lead the way and Trowa and Wufei are bringing up the rear."
"Roger that," she replied. Wing Zero and Archangel grabbed Sandrock’s arms and lifted into the air. They followed behind Deathscythe and Tallgeese as they headed away from the battlefield to safety.
* * * * *
"Artificial intelligence?" Wufei asked skeptically after Regina told her story.
She nodded. "I saw it intentionally crash itself into the wall. But after I named it, Archangel worked fine."
"Right now, the most important thing is the fact that the mobile suit factory is destroyed," Heero said.
"Yeah," Duo agreed. "Even if someone else is making suits for the Remnant, we’ve got a much better chance of winning this thing."
"We should plan a counter attack," Zechs said. "Presuming, of course, that there are no more factories. It would be to our advantage to put pressure on them."
"It’s going to take a couple of weeks to complete repairs on the gundams, so we’ll have plenty of time to plan," Trowa said.
While the other gundams were being repaired, most of the other pilots spent some time trying out Archangel. Wufei refused the opportunity and Trowa, Quatre, and Duo only tried it once. Heero and Zechs flew it a couple of times, and Regina got the impression that they were fascinated by the AI system.
A few days after the gundams were fixed, the pilots gathered in the hangar. They stared at each other in silence for a long moment. "Everyone know the plan?" Heero said finally. They nodded. They had located the areas where the majority of the Remnant troops were stationed and were splitting up to deal with the units individually.
Regina and Quatre hugged, and when they separated Regina saw Duo watching them, an expression of longing on his face. She walked over to him and hugged him too, then found herself hugging the rest of the men. "We’re going to see each other at the end, right?" she said firmly, looking from one to another. "We’ll all make it though fine and be able to go home to our families." The others nodded, looking a bit more optimistic than before. "Then let’s get this show on the road."
* * * * *
Across the Sanc Kingdom, the countryside echoed the sounds of battle. The gundam pilots did their best to draw the Remnant units away from the towns and do battle over open fields. Seven grim-faced pilots plunged their mobile suits into near-suicidal situations as they were both vastly outnumbered and limited by their determination not to kill any of the enemy soldiers.
Duo whirled and slashed in the Deathscythe, slicing off the arms and legs of the enemy suits. The suit shook with blasts from enemy guns, but he figured as long as Deathscythe could move, he’d continue to fight.
Heero and Zechs used the Wing Zero’s and Tallgeese’s beam sabers and the incredible speed of their suits to be able to strike and move out of the way of enemy fire. Heero thought of Relena, waiting and hoping, ready to help the Sanc Kingdom restore itself after the fighting was over. Zechs thought of Noin and wished for a moment that she was there to back him up in her white Taurus.
Trowa fought silently as always, using both Heavyarms’ Gatling gun and the blade on the right arm to fight, although he had to be careful where he fired the gun. He didn’t want to accidentally kill any of the soldiers.
Quatre went after the enemy suits with Sandrock’s heat shorters. He was doing pretty well, and hoped that the others were all right, too. He’d kept himself open to the soul of space and hadn’t felt anything to the contrary, so he figured that they were.
Wufei pulled back slightly, and then let out a long, wordless war cry as he plunged back into the battle, swinging left and right with Altron’s double trident. "This is what we were made for, Nataku! Let’s show them how a true warrior fights!" He had to give the Remnant credit, though. Their pilots were fearless and almost made worthy opponents. He snorted as another suit bumbled its way close enough for him to dismember it. Well, maybe not quite worthy.
Regina used Archangel’s beam saber to slash her way through the mobile suits surrounding her. "We can’t kill them, Archangel," she said. "We have to stop the suits without destroying them."
"That brings our chances of surviving this battle to almost zero," a male voice said.
Regina was so startled she let go of the controls, and Archangel took out the legs and guns of the next two suits on its own. "I didn’t know you could speak," she said when she got control of herself and the suit again.
"I synthesized a voice from those of your friends. Does it disturb you?"
"No, that’s fine," she said, smiling. Now that the suit had explained it, she could make out a slight resemblance to Zech’s voice and Heero’s speech patterns. "And I know it reduces our chances, but it’s important that we not kill the enemy soldiers. We don’t want to be seen as murderers."
"Acknowledged," Archangel replied, and they both returned their concentration to the fight.
* * * * *
"We made it!" Duo was the first to broadcast to the others as the seven suits came within sight of each other. They were at their predetermined rendezvous point, only a short flying distance from the location where they believed the Remnant’s headquarters was located.
"Did everyone achieve the objective?" Heero asked.
"Suits all destroyed, no casualties," Regina reported.
"Ditto," Duo said.
"Here, too," Quatre added.
"Roger," Zechs said.
"One casualty," Wufei said. "Guy moved the wrong way when I went to strike."
"Two casualties," Trowa chimed in. "Two suits collided and exploded."
"I think we can live with that," Zechs said. "If there are only three deaths in this war, it will be a very well-fought one indeed."
"That’s true," Trowa replied.
"There are probably more deaths than that," Quatre said. "We haven’t seen what they’ve done to the civilians yet."
"Let’s end this already, so we can stop talking about death and start talking about rebuilding life," Regina said, and flew toward the Remnant’s headquarters.
"I hear that," Duo said, following her.
When they reached the base, all was silent. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Trowa asked. "I can’t imagine that every mobile suit they had would have been in the units."
"Maybe that’s what the mobile suits I blew up in the factory were for," Regina replied.
"Maybe," Heero said. "Let’s check it out."
The seven pilots shut down their mobile suits and got out. When they were all on the ground, they headed toward the door as a group. There was no resistance at the door or inside. In fact, the hallways were completely empty.
"This is really weird," Duo said. "Maybe this isn’t the right place."
"That would make more sense than thinking they’re here and unaware of our presence," Wufei added.
"We’d better check the rest of the building to be sure," Zechs said.
They continued down the hallways, and as they reached the end of one, they could see light shining from beneath a closed door at the end. Quatre knocked on the door. "Hello? Is anyone in there?"
"You’re not taking me alive!" a man cried. "Me or any of my loyal soldiers!"
"Alan, what are you doing in there?" Zechs asked.
"We’re all prepared to die! You break down that door, and we’ll kill ourselves! We’ll die just like all our brother soldiers in the field!"
"You know how many soldiers died out there?" Regina called. "Three! Three people died in accidents. We didn’t kill anyone."
"Liars! Earth patsies! You’ve been ordered to eliminate me by that foreign minister bitch! She talks a good talk, but have the colonies gotten any benefits? No! The God-damned Earth is taking everything for itself!"
"Open this door, Alan!" Zechs demanded.
"You can’t order me around anymore! You’re a patsy just like the rest of them!"
"We can talk about this," Quatre said. "How many soldiers do you have in there with you?"
"Hundreds!" Alan said, laughing maniacally. "We’re all ready to die!"
"Are you sure?" Regina asked. "I’m sure many of your soldiers have families; wives and children that they’d like to go home to. We have families we want to go home to, as well. We don’t want to harm or punish anyone. We just want this to be over. Please, just open the door."
"Lies, all lies! I don’t want to hear any more lies! Tell the truth! Tell us how you want to torture us like animals! Tell us how you want to starve the colonies into submission! Tell us everything!"
"The truth is what the vice foreign minister has been telling you all along! The colonies and Earth have to live together!" Quatre cried.
"Domination! It’s all--" There was a gunshot, and Alan’s voice abruptly cut off.
"We’re putting down our weapons and opening the door," a different man said.
"All right," Heero replied.
In a minute, the door opened, and they walked in the room. There were ten men, not including Alan, who lay dead on the floor from a bullet to the head.
"My name is Grant," the man said. "I was his second-in-command. Did you really mean that about being able to go home?"
"Yes," Heero said. "Minister Darlian won’t want any more bloodshed."
"He was crazy," Grant said. "I knew...I knew there was something wrong with him when I joined, but I didn’t think... You have to understand, with the economy slowing down, a lot of people in the colonies are losing their jobs. Times are getting hard, and I guess we were looking for a way to...get back what we lost. But now, we just all want to go home."
"We’ll get you home, and we’ll think of something to help with the jobs," Regina promised.
~One Year Later (A.C. 207)~
"Do you think they know?" Regina asked in a whisper.
"I don’t think Heero has a clue, but you know how observant he is, maybe he noticed something," Relena replied softly.
"I think Duo knows," Hilde said. "He caught me with some of Trevor’s baby clothes the other day."
"I bet Heero will faint. You know all the ‘tough’ guys are like that," Noin said with a giggle. "Physical they can deal with, but emotional is just way out of their league."
"What happened when you told Milliardo about Raphael?" Relena asked.
"Let’s just say I speak from experience on the tough guy fainting thing," she said, and they all laughed.
"What’s up with them?" Duo asked, pointing a thumb toward the group of women. They had all gathered at the Sanc Kingdom mansion for a barbecue. The men sat around a wooden picnic table, watching the women whisper and giggle. Peace had returned after the surrender of the White Fang Remnant, and the people of the Sanc Kingdom had spent the last year rebuilding their homes and lives.
"Do we really want to know?" Wufei said.
"Ah, come on, Wufei, don’t try to make us believe you don’t care. We know about you and Sally," Duo said, grinning.
"What? I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Do you think we’re all blind?" Heero asked.
"That ring on her left hand looks an awful lot like an engagement ring," Quatre added.
"I--it’s--"
"I told you they’d notice," Sally said as the women walked over to them. She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "Besides, I think you’re glad I gave you a way out of propos--"
"A way out! You tricked me into it!"
"You took the bet, and I beat you. And if you really didn’t want to marry me, you would have refused, bet or no."
"What bet?" Duo asked.
Sally smiled as she sat next to Wufei. "We were sparring, and I told him I could beat him. He said I couldn’t, so we made a bet. If I beat him, he’d marry me. If he beat me, I’d give his gundam a wash and wax. And I beat him."
"See? She tricked me into it!"
"I didn’t give you a time limit, Wufei, and it certainly didn’t take you that long to buy me a ring."
"Give up, Wufei. We all know you’ve been sweet on Sally for a while," Heero said.
"I--" he began, but Sally wrapped an arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder, snuggling it against his neck. He sighed. "She fights well. I admire her. Are you satisfied?"
"Yes," everyone else said simultaneously, and laughed.
The rest of the men sat next to their respective partners. Dorothy and Trowa, who had married a few months before, put their arms around each other’s waists. "What were you girls giggling about before, anyway?" Duo asked.
They looked at each other and burst into giggles again. "Will you stop that and just tell us what’s so funny?" Wufei said in exasperation.
"I’m pregnant," Hilde said.
"So am I," Relena added.
"That’s great!" Duo said, hugging Hilde. "Congrats, ‘Lena."
"Thanks, Duo," she said absently, her attention on Heero.
Heero looked at Relena. "You’re pregnant?"
She nodded. "I took a home test, then went to a doctor. He confirmed it."
Heero shrugged. "Hn," he said in a bored, non-committal way before taking a bite out of his hamburger. There was utter silence as the rest of the table stared at him in shock.
"Doesn’t anything produce some kind of emotion in you?" Duo asked.
Heero shrugged again, but his eyes slid sideways and caught Relena’s. She started laughing and flung both arms around him. He finally allowed himself to smile as he put an arm around her waist.
"Oh jeeze, he was faking," Duo groaned.
"I’m actually very happy," Heero said, resting his head against Relena’s.
She smiled and kissed his cheek. "I love you," she said.
"Love you too," he replied.
"A toast," Zechs said, raising his glass. "To a better world."
"A new peace," Relena added.
"New lives," Heero said.
"New wives," Trowa continued, causing Dorothy and Sally to giggle.
"Friends and family," Regina and Quatre said together.
"Our children," Duo said.
"Our husbands, royal pains though they may be sometimes," Hilde said with a smile.
"Amen!" the other women chorused.
"Second chances," Dorothy said.
"The man that let me trick him into getting married," Sally said, grinning.
"The gundams," Wufei added.
"To all of us," Noin finished. "Men and women, husbands and wives, siblings and parents. May our lives have more good days than bad."
And the back yard echoed with the clink of glasses.
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