Diclaimer: I most certainly do not own Gundam Wing, but I do own Selene. I hope you enjoy. Please ask my permission if you'd like to use her. (Not that'd you'd want to.)
Author's Note: I have revised this chapter because her characterization has developed more and I wish for this chapter to be consistent with the later chapters.
A Girl?!?!
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.
-Abraham Lincoln
The wind blew through her black silk-like hair
causing to wave like the gently rolling sea. The time had come, and she knew
her heart was ready or at least, she hoped it was. All her training, all her
life, all her pain. everything had come down to this, this one mission that she
yearned to complete successfully. But
thoughts of failure still clouded her mind, "What if I'm not good enough? Why me?
They should have picked someone better.
What would my father have said if he knew?" The only daughter of Heero Yuy shuddered.
"You know what you need to do, Selene,
all that's left is to actually do it," a resonant voice whispered,
"you're absolutely ready, I have no doubt about it, you're an elite
soldier. Go make OZ pay!" The sixteen-year old girl nodded her head, her
dark blue eyes filled with a desire for revenge, but her stomach twisted in
anticipation. It was her first real
battle, what if she really wasn't as well trained as she thought? Her mind wondered if the other pilots had
felt such anxiety before their first battle.
One word came into her mind that pushed out all the negative
thoughts. Revenge. She had waited so long for its sweet taste,
maybe after all was over, she could finally sleep peacefully. With hands now calloused from her hard work,
she pulled herself into silver colored mobile suit and quickly pressed the
multiple buttons to activate it just like she had in all her drills.
"Well, Lunar Eclipse," she commented to the gundam as if it would
understand her, "sad to say after this battle, I'll be working for the
enemy, which means you and me won't be seeing each other for a while. Enough of
my yapping, anyway, let's go make those ozzies pay for all the pain they've
caused everyone!" The words
streaming out of her mouth made her have a warm fuzzy feeling inside. With that said the gundam lunged forward,
opened its metallic wings and gracefully took flight.
*
* *
"There's a mobile suit heading towards this
base, Colonel," a young officer reported to his Colonel. He examined the radar readings and
recognized in horror what it was, "Looks to be a gundam, sir."
"Huh?" it was obvious colonel Zech's focus had been on something
other than the radar. He was leaning
back in a leather chair, staring up into oblivion with a mind shrouded in the
horrors of his past.
"There's an enemy suit coming here!" the soldier shouted impatiently,
he was a new soldier just out of training and he was growing apprehensive at
having to see a gundam so soon.
"Oh," Zechs answered rather nonchalantly. His mind had still not returned back to earth.
"Well? Aren't you going to do something?" the subordinate soldier
began to wonder if his colonel was even listening as beads of sweat rolled down
his forehead.
"Hmm. why don't we give it a nice warm welcome, and invite it to use our
carrier planes for traveling?" Zechs asked when he finally realized the
situation, a sly smile forming on his face. Though, it was hard to tell, since
a helmet like mask that was obviously hiding some great secret concealed most
of his face.
"Are you out of your mind, Colonel?" the officer asked supremely
shocked and trepidation clouding all his thoughts. Surely they would die if action was not taken.
"Perhaps," Zechs muttered, "Actually, I plan on going out to
fight this thing alone to avenge the men I've already lost to that other
gundam." Honor had gotten the best of him. He knew in the back of his mind
that such an act would surely be equivalent to suicide, but he wanted
desperately to end this game himself.
"You'll know what the pain of loss is, pilot," he thought as if sending
a mental message to the pilot of the gundam.
" You ARE crazy! What's wrong, is that mask cutting off the blood
circulation to your brain (according to Katie: your gray matter) or
something?" the soldier knew he was going past his boundaries; however he
wanted to be able to say at the colonel's funeral, "I told him
so." Or if things went as they
were going, he wouldn't even be around to say that.
Zechs seemed unaffected by the scathing comments; instead he smirked as he walked
off to prepare for battle.
* * *
The computer in front of
Heero began to develop some static. In annoyance, Heero slapped the side of the
computer; he wasn't too fond of interruptions when there was important work to
be done. An image of Dr. J. appeared on the computer, "Hello
Heero." Heero almost jumped back
in shock; almost, but his sense of composure got the best of him.
"Do I have another mission?" Heero asked monotonously. Though his
voice was void of emotion, he secretly was anxious to get out again and
battle. There was no excitement with
planning, and it wasn't helping the curtailing of the war either.
"No, but, I wanted to inform you Operation Lunar Asteroid was under way.
Selene, our sixth pilot will be working for OZ, but at the same time she will
be taking all their plans and sending them to us." Dr. J spoke quickly as
if he had something urgent to attend to after the session. "Selene was trained well, but I fear that
the tyro still has a bit of apprehension.
I could sense it."
Heero froze for a second and then replied, "And how will I be able to tell
him apart…"
Heero was interrupted by Dr. J.'s warm laughter, "She! Not HE! I thought I had made that clear before.
"
"She?" Heero sounded quite shocked, even though he tried to hide
it. "No wonder she was
apprehensive. Infiltration is not a job
for a woman. But then, again, I suppose
in an organization full of men, it might be."
"Well, duh Heero, Selene is a female name!" the braided wonder who
had been standing there all along answered.
He had seemed invisible in his corner, watching quietly.
"How long have you been here DUO?" Heero questioned Duo, he was
trying desperately not to lose his temper, since that would be
unHeero-like. It was irritating to
think he was being spied upon.
"Long enough," Duo answered flashing the famous Duo Maxwell grin,
"So as Heero was saying, how can we tell this chick apart from all the
other baddies?" He folded his arms
and leaned against the wall, waiting for the scientist's answer.
"Well, I've instructed her to tie a white band on her mobile suit, and
physically she has dark blue eyes, and wavy black hair. If that isn't enough,
I'm sure it will be obvious by her different fighting style than from the OZ
soldiers. She might not end up being
one of the best among them, but I'm sure you'll be able to tell. Besides, she'll be the one restraining from
the fighting since she is on our side." Duo laughed some more at the
prospect of Heero mistaking their new pilot as a boy.
"A girl." Heero whispered, " makes sense, a girl would have an
easier time getting information from Zechs or Treize than someone annoying like
you."
"HEY!" Duo shouted, "Watch it, I have feelings unlike you!"
Heero suppressed a smile.
* * *
Selene looked down from her gundam at the rolling countryside searching for a place to hide her gundam after the battle. "Hmmmm... How odd," she muttered, "They haven't sent out a whole fleet of Leos against me... yet. Perhaps I won't have to fight them first. That would be a relief. Oh, Selene, will you stop acting like a baby. That would NOT be a relief. I'm here to obliterate them all!"
Just then, she felt a strong
blow from behind. Her body trembled slightly, but then she quickly shifted the
gundam to that direction expecting to see a swarm of Leos except, that wasn't
what she got. There was a single Leo floating with its beam saber drawn. It amused her, "What are they thinking? I didn't know OZ was fond of suicide
missions."
"I challenge you gundam," a voice boomed in through her
communicator. It was assured and
unwavering, for a second it sent chills through her back. But then she quickly changed moods when she
realized what an easy battle this would prove to be.
Selene couldn't contain herself…she had tried… but now she couldn't… she burst
out laughing. But even as she laughed,
her subconscious warned her not to grow to assured as to lose her
concentration. "Man, you ozzies sure don't know too much," she stated
between small bursts of laughter. It
seemed it was too late, though; assurance had already seeped into her mind and
taken the form of a light sort of arrogance. Little did she know that sometime
soon her arrogance would catch in quite a quagmire.
In the Leo, Zechs was becoming aggravated, "I'll show this foolish
pilot," he thought. His Leo raised its sword to strike again, but Lunar
Eclipse was faster. It grabbed his Leo tightly in its strong hands silvery
hands. Sweat dared to trickle down his
long blonde bangs, which were concealed by the ivory mask. "Will this mobile suit become my casket?" he
thought trying to guess what the pilot's next move would be.
"Quite a turn of events." Selene smiled maliciously, "What is
your name Ozzie?" She couldn't
resist tormenting before she finished him off.
"No, Selene, no, just finish him off and go. Don't dawdle here," her subconscious screamed.
Zechs couldn't believe it, "Why doesn't she just finish me off?" he pondered,
"Maybe I can use this time to my advantage.
Stupid pilot. You should kill
your enemies while you have the chance."
"If you must know I am Specials Ace Zechs Merquise," he
answered while his mind ran through different ways to escape this quite
unpleasant predicament.
"Quite an elaborate name Zechsy-boy, of course, it might not fit on your
tombstone!" she found herself really getting into this. It would be over soon. And this appetizer to revenge would content
her quite a bit.
Zechs felt his whole body feel tense, this pilot was playing around with him
like a cat toys with a mouse before pouncing, and he couldn't think of any way
to escape. "Listen Zechsy-boy, and listen well, I can sense all your
emotions, your heart is beating, the adrenaline is rushing, you're afraid...
terrified…intimidated…panicking… in other words, scared."
Zechs winced at the nickname and then interrupted, "Are you planning on
killing me anytime soon?"
"Since I am in a generous mood, which happens scarcely, I've decided to
let you go, but make sure you inform all your Ozzie friends that next time our
paths cross, they won't be quite as lucky as you!" Selene laughed
vindictively and flew off to the overhang where she had decided to hide her
gundam. There was a soft whoosh that
penetrated the air as gundanium alloy cut through the air.
Zechs shivered and then smiled; he had come out alive after all.
* * *
Selene stood in front of the
OZ building, her hair pulled in a low ponytail. To the untrained eye, she
looked like any other schoolgirl - reticent, innocent, and certainly not
lethal. "Wow, nice place, too bad its at the expense of lives and
happiness of the people," Selene thought while gazing at the massive
edifice that held the OZ headquarters.
"May I help you ma'am?" one of the soldiers on guard asked, he was
well groomed and stood erect against a marble pillar.
Selene began to speak trying to mask her anger towards OZ with sweetness,
" I heard Colonel Treize was looking for soldiers, and here I
am." She hoped it didn't sound too
peculiar.
The man laughed under his breath, "Colonel Treize was looking for men to
fight for him, and you, clearly are not a man!"
"What difference does it make if I'm a woman? Is Colonel Une not a
woman?" Selene tried to keep the anger seething within her from
overflowing. "Must keep calm," she thought. Luckily, she was calm enough to think of the only female member
of OZ she had really heard of before.
"Colonel Une is an elite soldier, you on the other hand would not even
survive to become a low ranking officer," answered the soldier pompously.
"I wouldn't?" Selene asked, her
eyes glimmering. "On second thought, forget the whole 'keep calm'
issue," she whispered to herself. The soldier laughed to himself quietly
some more, but his laughter ceased when the girl drew her sword. "Alright,
you've insulted me, now, you will have to duel me."
"Sure," the man answered pompously drawing his own sword; it was much
frailer than her sword. In a flash Selene made a swift movement with her sword
and the soldiers sword lie on the ground broken in two pieces. The pieces gleamed in the noonday sun as her
eyes did while she stared angrily at the obstinate guard.
"I want to see Colonel Treize, would you please direct me?" her voice
sounded soft and angelic, as if nothing had happened at all. The soldier nodded
obediently and led her in silence to his office.
* * *
Treize sat at his desk,
gently petting one of his many canaries. "I wonder what is taking Zechs so
long. He should have been here by now." He gracefully stood up and walked
to the window.
"At least some of us should be entitled to freedom," he commented as
he let the canary out the window. He knew that much greater battles were
eminent and compared to what was to come, right now was just child's play. Just
then there was a light knock on the door. "That must be Zechs now,"
he thought. "Come in." It wasn't Zechs though; it was Haft, one of
his officers with his forehead dotted with sweat. "What's wrong?"
Haft quickly moved out of the way allowing the seemingly innocent young lady
step forward.
"How may I help you?" Treize asked eloquently.
"Wow, Treize has really changed since the last time I saw him,"
Selene thought. He looked nothing like the young friend of Milliardo's who used
to throw snowballs at her in the winter. Haft seemed in a hurry to leave, but
this did not surprise Selene at all. She knew she had acted rashly and that she
should watch herself more carefully, but it had been so tempting to wipe the
grin off his face. "I wanted to become a soldier under your command, sir."
"A soldier?" Treize mulled over the thought, "but you look to be
just a little girl." Haft, who was standing behind Selene shook his head
trying to warn Treize but obviously Treize did not get the message.
"A little girl?" Selene seemed quite insulted by that, but she was
patient unlike she was with Haft. "Bring me your best soldier Treize, and
I'll prove to you what this *little* girl can do." She felt hesitant at
being so bold and hoped to herself that her painstaking training would finally
pay off.
Treize seemed up to the challenge, "Alright then, when Colonel Zechs
arrives, we'll have you duel him, with swords of course, mobile suits would
give him an unfair advantage. If you win, I'll let you be a soldier."
"But you won't win," Treize thought.
Selene took a deep breath, her fear melting away like snow under the scorching
summer sun. She forced herself to keep from laughing, "Zechs, where have I
heard that name before," she thought, even though she knew the answer. But yet her body twitched, "He was in a Leo,"
she thought, "if he had a gundam, he would probably have me beat."
* * *
Zechs jumped out from his
Leo feeling exhausted, he knew he needed to rest before commencing some more
training. He swore to himself that it would be the last time he would be beaten
by the ruthless gundams. "Treize wants you in his office," one of the
officers informed him, "says it's urgent."
Zechs muttered incoherently, but orders were orders. He picked up his pace and
ran up to Treize's office. Several of his own men started to follow him.
"What are you doing?" he asked perplexed.
"We want to see you fight this woman everyone is talking about!" one
of the officers answered. News spread
like wildfire on the base. Already tall
tales had spread some talking about a fifty foot woman and others talking about
an Amazon that was holding Treize hostage that very moment. All amusingly extreme exaggerations.
"Woman? What woman?" Zechs hoped he was hearing everything correctly.
"This woman in Mr. Treize's office is going to duel you, if she wins she
gets to be a soldier for OZ."
"How is that fair? She'll never be able to beat me, tell Treize I
refuse," it hurt his honor to have to fight someone that he knew he could
easily beat. However, he was underestimating the skills of his challenger.
"She won't let you back out," another officer added.
Zechs sighed, "Well, that's too bad for her then."
He opened the door and found many other soldiers gathered in the room. He
couldn't understand what the big deal over this girl was. "Well where is
she?" he asked, quite annoyed. The men all pointed to the young girl who
had her sword unsheathed. She was taller than most of the men, but one could
still tell that she looked much younger than the rest.
"That's not a woman! She's merely a child! Now this is truly unfair,"
Zechs whispered. "This isn't like Treize," he thought and he began to
wonder what exactly was going on. Treize stood in the corner, smiling; he knew
something was oddly familiar about that girl, and he could tell from the look
on Zechs's face that he hadn't caught it.
Selene circled around Zechs like a lioness stalking her prey. "Is this all
you can bring me?!" she commented. Zechs was red as a beet but it wasn't
apparent; he couldn't understand what all this would accomplish, "Alright,
child, I'll fight you."
"Good. And also, you might not want your men in the room to witness the
shame of their own colonel losing to a mere little girl," Selene smiled,
this was more fun than she thought it would be. And then her stomach twisted in anxiety, she was most comfortable
with the sword because she hated and feared guns. But this was a colonel in OZ, and she knew it would take luck as
well as skill to win.
"No, girl, you're the only one who will feel any shame," Zechs
sneered, but he soon wanted to take back his statement. He didn't think he had
any reason to hate this girl yet, but for someone reason he didn't seem too
fond of her.
"By the way, my name is Selene, engrave that name on your mind," she
hissed while trying to keep her composure.
She could tell the man was well conditioned with his uniform creasing
over ample muscle.
"I'll engrave it on your tombstone too," Zechs whispered to himself.
However, it seemed it was audible enough for Selene to catch his words.
"Hey!" thought Selene angrily, "that was stolen from my
line!" And then a startling
thought struck her, "If he's assured enough to single-handedly attack a gundam,
what will be left of me after this duel?"
"Whenever you're ready," Treize said leaning back in his chair.
"Perhaps I'm wrong," he thought, "perhaps she isn't who I first
thought she may have been. If that were the case, Zechs surely wouldn't be
acting so hostile. That must be it; I was foolish to think that that girl made
out alive. My memory must be growing dim, she doesn't really resemble her
either." Selene stayed back, trying to make herself look weak, allowing
Zechs to make the first move. He fell right for the bait, the poor fool. He
lunged at her, and she moved aside causing him to hit the desk, lucky for him,
he had his mask, or else it might have ended there. It was unlucky for Selene, though, she feared that if she
couldn't end it quickly, she would be as easily chopped into pieces by him as a
professional cook chops vegetables. The men, who had been chattering away
nervously, fell silent. Selene ran on to the balcony. She couldn't think of what else to do.
"Are you running away, little girl?" one of the braver soldiers
taunted her. Zechs quickly came after her, and the excitement began. Their
swords clashed, as they moved back and forth.
The dance of clashing swords was perfect, and the two fighters moved
about with the grace and precision of ballerinas, though much deadlier.
"He's good," Selene thought to herself, "but I need to be
better." It was harder for her to predict his moves when she couldn't see
the expressions on his face, but she still seemed to be doing well. Then she
began to wonder why he even wore that mask.
"I'll get her right where I want her," Zechs thought; he had been
shocked by the skill of his opponent but was till determined to be the victor.
There was a fierce look in her eyes, the desire to win. "Why does she want
so badly to join Oz?" he asked himself, "she should get out of here,
she doesn't belong. She can get better than this." His own thoughts
shocked him, because he knew it shouldn't matter to him what this silly little
girl wanted to do. He let the thoughts dissipate, and he prepared to play out
his plan to get rid of her.
Selene could sense his plan. "Alright, I'll play along," she thought
lunging for Zechs with quite a bit of force. Zechs's plan worked perfectly; at
least he thought it had. He dodged swiftly and Selene went flying over the
balcony railing.
"Quite a pity," he said, "I think I could have grown to like
her." "No more of her," he thought, "thank goodness."
All the soldiers cheered and clapped, but all of a sudden silence came over
them like an ominous cloud. Zechs felt himself hit the floor hard losing his
sword as well. He looked up to see Selene standing above him, with her sword
and his sword in her hand. "You underestimated me, that's why you
lost," she said throwing Zech's sword to Treize. "I expect you to
keep your promise, you will make me an officer of OZ." She secretly let out the breath she hadn't
even thought she was holding while she pondered, "I won out of luck. His skill preceded mine. As much as I hate winning this by chance, I
can't afford to duel him again."
"No," Treize answered, "I will make you a lieutenant under
Colonel Zechs." "It would be an ironic twist," Treize thought,
"I just hope they don't kill each other first."
Selene smiled in satisfaction, "that works too." She soon noticed her
silent audience, "What are you staring out, get to work!"
Treize smiled, "I do believe you've given them your first order...
Lieutenant."
"Lunata," Selene added, giving the name she had decided would be her
pseudo-name. The men were obedient and left the room as soon as possible; they
had already decided that this new soldier would pay for mortifying their
superior officer.
"Wait a second, Haft!" Treize shouted as the officer tried to scurry
out of the room, "Please escort Lieutenant Lunata to suite 12."
Haft nodded, his eyes filling with fear, he too had sworn revenge, but at this
moment he wanted as far away from that girl as possible. Following his orders,
however, he led the girl away. As soon as they left the room Treize went over
to Zechs who was staring at her coldly as she left. "So, I guess this
means your going to learn to like her," Treize commented as Zechs walked
out.
"Don't bet your life on it, Treize," was his terse reply.
