"Peacemillion will understand my motives." Noin's hand was barely held in check as she pressed buttons on the console, chilled by hearing Zechs speak to Quinze. The comm link hadn't been on a wide broadcast, but she knew the erstwhile Lightning Count well enough to use the same frequency as he.
"But will the Gundams understand?" she asked in a clipped voice, opening a comm to him.
"Don't be stupid." Zechs' words bit into her, but her features remained still…even knowing that he would remain able to read every part of her expression. "Of course they will try to stop me."
"You're waiting for that." Noin shook her head, stifled a sigh. He should have killed me, this would all be over if he had…
He started to answer, but a shrill beeping in Noin's cockpit interrupted. One of the few White Fang pilots, one of only five-odd playing second fiddle to Dorothy's main control of the mobile dolls, came up, energy weapon raised.
Noin turned in confusion to the comm screen, heard Zechs call to the pilot, "Heren, what the hell are you doing?"
"Zechs, what-"
+++
Noin woke up with a headache, some sort of bright light on overhead. An old, almost balding man looked over her coldly, nearly resentful of her.
"Glad to see you up," he commented, sarcasm dripping in his voice. "Who-who are you?" she asked, sitting up immediately, despite the nausea it caused. "What happened?"
Quinze glared in annoyance. "One of our controllers got the brilliant idea of attacking you. Commander Milliardo was not pleased."
She blinked; attempting to process the half-information he was giving her. She could recognize the voice from the person speaking with Zechs, overheard on the comm links.
"One of your pilots attacked me, that I understand. But why am I on Libra?"
Noin listened to him mutter while walking to the other end of the room, various complaints including "why this Commander," "stupid woman," "OZ recruits," "going overboard."
She waited patiently, noting her left wrist was banged up and she wasn't feeling entirely in one piece.
"To answer your question," Quinze barked over, "Milliardo-sama found the need to have you treated as soon as possible. Why in the earth sphere he would want that is beyond me, he ordered me to inform you you're not being held prisoner and are free to go, I believe your Taurus has been repaired already."
"I'm not leaving until Zechs tells me what's going on," Noin said firmly.
Quinze didn't answer, the muttering continuing as he apparently wasted time doing nothing and rearranging items for no particular reason. "He should be in a conference room. Tell one of the soldiers to escort you," he almost growled.
Noin stiffened at the idea of having to ask one of the White Fangs for assistance. Of course, the person I love most is one…
"If not, just get off Libra. Your Taurus is in the hangar."
She left without answering. About ten minutes later, she was hopelessly lost, finding all the rooms empty and stepping around fallen debris repeatedly. Apparently, Peacemillion had rammed them. Probably Sally's idea, it certainly sounds like her.
Another dead end. She turned back in annoyance, the silent, mindless rhythm of walking down metal corridors. For some reason, there weren't many soldiers in the area where she was. It didn't make sense, any of it…the emptiness of the area, Zechs himself… Why would he do this? Traumatizing the public won't do any good; he understands that, doesn't he? And with Treize, why are they fighting so bitterly when they used to be friends? All of this is illogical, Treize himself designed the Epyon and its Zero system, shouldn't it be compatible…
Funny how a ship whose name means 'free' should be so confining.
"Excuse me, are you looking for Commander Milliardo?" A slightly edgy soldier interrupted her, evidently nervous.
"Yes, I am." Noin's voice was smooth and controlled, the voice she had once used on her cadets to get them to pay attention. "Could you help me find him?"
"Certainly." The soldier kept glancing at her sidelong, nearly shaking in his anxiety.
"Soldier." She placed a hand on his arm to get him to stop as he was leading her down another corridor. "Why is it you're so nervous? You know very well I'm incapable of hurting you, I'm on the enemy's ship."
The soldier was only more nervous, instead pointing to a door. "He's in here." With that, he ducked away. Noin opened the door, confused about the soldier's reaction but finding speaking to Zechs more pertinent.
"Noin."
She looked around, noticed him standing against a wall. "Zechs, don't do this to me." She sighed, shaking her head. "I know that's not you."
The hologram agreed with her grimly, wavering and disappearing. "I am." A different voice came up behind her, and Noin knew he was real this time. She could hear him breathing.
"Zechs, what the hell happened?" she asked softly, keeping herself as non-threatening as possible. The clouded look in his eyes disturbed her.
"One of the mobile-doll controllers attacked you." Zechs' voice was flat and noncommittal.
"Why aren't I dead now?"
"I stopped him."
"Why?"
The silence stretched on for longer, Noin feeling the pressure in the room build up to a palpable level. That soldier was afraid because Zechs told them not to touch me…he wasn't afraid of me, he was afraid of Zechs…
"That's irrelevant. You should leave now, some of the people on Peacemillion will be concerned."
"Don't do this." Noin shook her head. "I know Epyon hasn't taken away all of the Zechs I grew up with. Milliardo Peacecraft isn't dead either. But he's not you." She stopped a few seconds to regulate her hyperventilation. "I don't know who you are."
She stopped speaking, waiting for any of a myriad expected answers. I hope he doesn't get angry… Christ, I hate this. I should be able to tell his every word before he says it, but-
"Commander Milliardo," Quinze's voice came over the intercom, "the Gundams have penetrated Libra. Gate 17 has been destroyed."
"Acknowledged."
He said nothing more than that one word. Through the silence, Noin noted the background hum and some muffled voices - Quinze hadn't closed the comm, instead eavesdropping.
"'Silence is the most unnerving,'" she quoted abruptly, hoping he would remember. There was another brief period of quiet before he answered.
"I said that, didn't I?" Some of his clouded glance dissipated, letting her relax somewhat.
"Four years ago. We'd been transferred under Alliance control for two months."
"Four years…was it that long? I can still remember it so clearly."
Noin barely stifled a sigh of relief. Zechs was evidently still disoriented, but most of his sanity had returned. "We would. It was a brutal battle."
"In the end…"
"Yes." She shut her eyes for a moment, willing the images of carnage they caused away for a time. "Yes." When she opened them, Zechs was next to her, and soon holding her in a gentle embrace. "I'm glad you're back," she said quietly, returning the gesture.
+++
Quinze was beginning to worry about the effects this annoying Peacemillion recruit was having on the Commander. Not even his own sister had gotten him to think "correctly," how the hell had an old colleague? Unless she were more…
He checked the MD control room again, greeted now by the sounds of clanging metal and a vicious altercation. The bitch isn't going to listen now…
"Milliardo-sama," he tried again on a different link. "We need you on the bridge." Damage reports were flooding in and the White Fangs were panicking. Not to mention, Milliardo's apparent girlfriend was going to ruin everything…
"I'm right here, Quinze," Zechs interrupted. He turned at the sudden noise, noting with a measure of distaste that - what was her name again? - was at his side.
"Ah…" Quinze stopped, attempting to hide his adverse reaction when Noin tipped her head at him curiously. "We've been trying to program the mobile dolls to understand the formation," he tapped and brought up the still ongoing battle in mechanical form, "but we're still completely baffled as to what it is ourselves."
Zechs glanced at it. He could understand most of it, but some of the fringe movements outright contradicted what they should have been doing. When he turned to look at Noin's profile, he realized she understood it all. The white-haired old man in front of them saw nothing but an odd movement from his commander. The look meant nothing to him.
"You know," he prompted blankly.
"Yes." Noin remained silent for a few moments. Quinze blinked in confusion at the cryptic conversation. Is she defecting…?
She continued in an even voice. "I can't."
"I wasn't asking." Their half-finished sentences apparently constituted a complete conversation for them, but to him they remained a fairly random assortment of words.
Noin was standing far too close to Zechs for Quinze's taste, but his Commander didn't appear to mind. Of course, Zechs wouldn't.
+++
She watched the formations, knowing exactly how all of it worked; nearly pleased the design had been as effective as they had hoped it would be. Something was off. Noin had been positive the Zechs she knew had returned, but…
Then she understood. By being in this environment, it was only reversing what she had done…or perhaps she hadn't done anything at all. It was no longer the Zero system affecting Zechs' mind.
"Zechs, look at me," Noin said softly, turning to him in abrupt worry. She wasn't supposed to be there.
"What is it?" he asked, turning.
The look in his eyes both frightened and devastated her.
"Sumimasen…" she whispered below earshot of most everyone else in the half-panicked surrounding of the bridge, leaving without another word.
+++
Sally noted the blip on one of the few remaining radar operative, nodding to Howard as she did so. "It's Noin's Taurus," he confirmed. "So she isn't dead."
"No one saw what happened," Sally remarked, frowning as she continued to examine the display. "Look at the White Fang dolls…they're not going anywhere near her. She's right next to a cluster of them, but it's like she doesn't exist…"
Howard frowned. "There's a possibility she defected. We know how she feels about the Peacecraft-"
"She wouldn't." Sally shook her head fervently, even as she recognized the possibility. "I'll go down and see what happened."
+++
Noin dropped out of her Taurus, even that simple, practiced movement seeming slow and clumsy. "Sally?" she asked, pulling off her helmet. Her purple-blue hair was mussed, but surprisingly clean.
"Hai…Noin, are you alright?"
The former OZ Lieutenant-Colonel sighed, answering, "Not now. But I will be."
"What happened?"
Noin was silent, as was quickly becoming her custom in the past few harried days. "I thought I had him back…" Sally was fully aware Noin was only keeping tears back through sheer force of will, and remained respectfully quiet until she finished. "But it's impossible on Libra. He's gone to fight Heero already, I could tell…Zechs wants to die."
"You mean it's not the Zero system anymore?" Sally was fast becoming highly bemused. Noin's speech wasn't entirely coherent, but she could still see several overt flaws in what she was saying.
"No, but it will be." Noin looked away. "What hurts most was I did have him back; it wasn't enough. He still plans on dying, and once he gets into Epyon…"
"I see." She paused, attempting to phrase her next sentence correctly. "Are you going back out…?"
"I won't be able to fight." Noin frowned. "Zechs programmed the dolls to leave me alone, no one on Libra would dare change that, but-"
"It's okay, Noin. You don't have to." Sally could understand her friend's reluctance to battle now.
"I'm still going out. I wouldn't be able to stand not knowing when it happened."
Alright, I know it wasn't the greatest, so tell me what I did wrong.