Chapter 1: The Final Victor
"Certain Conditions must be met for total peace. " I spoke as I pulled on the thrusters to draw out my mobile Suit's weapons. My enemy was flying towards me, with the intention of killing me. His name? Heero Yuy. Perfect Solider. Perfect Rival.
"First all weapons, must be eliminated. And second, the desire to fight must be erased from people's minds!" I shouted, as I flew higher.
In response, a fully loaded beam blast was directed towards me, but my mobile suited was too quick to be hit. I quickly evaded the attack, and I engaged my enemy with my mobile suit's beam sword.
"Libra plunging towards Earth! It's the only way to achieve Total Pacifism!" I shouted.
"The people who have lost Earth will hate you, and the Colonies will rely on you." My enemy replied. "The same mistakes will be repeated as long as you're alive."
In response to his statement, I used my Epyon's heat rod to take out that pesky buster rifle. Soon all these weapons will be no more. We will finally have peace again.
But back to our battle, our two swords clashed, as I tried to reason with Heero. Or was he trying to reason with me?
"You're the same as Treize, claiming to fight for justice to protect the weak." Heero stated. "But in fact, you're not actually protecting the weak at all."
"It's the strong that created the weak." I explained. "It's the strong Earth that created the weak Colonies, and almost drove them to destruction!" And with that, I tried to attack Heero with all my might and power.
Heero tried to dodge my attacks, focusing on defense rather than attack. Within moment, I had won the battle. Or so I thought.
"Victory will be mine!" I roared, as my beam sword was pointed straight at my enemy.
"I can't stand the weak. They're always nervous about when they might next be attacked. They can't trust anybody, and they never have an opinion of their own! I can't stand such people!" Heero retorted.
"Strong people made them that way!" I retorted.
But then Libra's platform began to explode and Heero used this opportunity to turn the tides around.
"Zechs, nobody is strong. All of humanity is weak!" Heero said. "That includes us as well!"
We battled and battled. Every hit, every attack ending in a never-ending stalemate.
But then I saw Heero gaining an upper advantage. Although he wasn't using the Zero system, I could still feel his power.
"You're finished Zechs!" He shouted.
I grunted. "Not yet! I still haven't acknowledged that I am one of the weaker people in the world!" I said, as my Epyon and I plunged into the deep corners of Libra.
Heero Yuy, my persistent rival, followed me.
He showered me with bullets, but my Epyon dodged them gracefully.
Finally, I knocked Wing Zero off balance, shaking my opponent.
I went straight towards him, but he flew up, showering me again with bullets.
"The colonies are headed towards total Pacifism all on their own." Heero shouted. "What you're doing is meaningless!"
"My destiny is smeared with blood and I won't be talked out of this transgression! I'm going to settle this, Heero!" I declared, as I ran straight towards him.
Heero Yuy, the boy that self-destructed his own mobile suit, the boy who might as well be my equal, flew towards me at the same time. Our beam swords collided, but in the end it was not I that was the victor.
My Mobile Suit, threw out electrical discharges, but I wasn't hurt at all. My mobile suit knelt down in defeat, as if it acknowledged its missing arm.
"Why don't you kill me?" I asked.
But then his reply was something that shocked and surprised me.
"Relena would be sad." He said, as he took off, disappearing within sight.
Unbelievable. This boy, that was trying to kill my little sister from the very start, actually cared about her. I broke down in tears. Well not exactly in tears. But my mental barriers almost broke. I can tell you that.
Suddenly, I came to the realization that all this time, I was wrong. Destroying Libra would be the best solution. Perhaps the best solution towards total peace.
With this in mind, I rushed towards Libra's main core. I saw Heero, almost about to self-destruct his own gundam. I hopped in front of the reactor, seemingly surprising him.
"There is only one more thing to attain total pacifism, a strong heart that can empathize with people. Like yours. "I said, and my enemy said nothing in response. Not a word, not a whisper.
"You're too pure, and too kind. But I guess that is what gives you the right to live." I spoke.
He still said nothing.
"Just watch me! I'm going to live, right to the bitter end!" I declared as my Epyon's sword slashed through Libra's main reactor.
Without haste, I was soon engulfed in a wave of fire.
"ZECHS!" my opponent screamed.
"I'll live the hard life of a warrior!" I shouted.
"Zechs, stop it!" Heero pleaded.
"Till we meet again, Heero." I replied, as my Epyon and I disappeared into the fire.
Guess this was supposed to be the end for me. The fate of a warrior. But something else happened. Something rather unusual.
Chapter 2: Captured on Earth
My eyes were closed, but my body was still alive. I felt the weight of the Epyon push against me, as it fell towards the ground.
Was I in the sky? Did I supposedly escape out of Libra, and plunge towards the Earth? I had no time to think about my predicament.
THUD! My head slammed against the Epyon's interior walls.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Am I on Earth?" I asked.
Suddenly, police cars rushed towards me. An army of helicopters surrounded me through the skies.
"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" A loud voice spoke. "WE DO NOT WANT TO USE LETHAL FORCE."
I didn't listen the orders being shouted out towards me.
"Come on Epyon, get up!" I shouted, as I tried to push levers. The Epyon didn't response. The ZERO System was offline. After this happened, I knew that I could no longer resist.
I got out of my gundam, and raised my hands up in surrender. Suddenly men of strange uniforms arrived, and grabbed me by the arms.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked, but then something hard hit the back of my skull.
Everything seemed to blur. My eyes started to close themselves, but I could still hear the voices of the men.
"Sir, we knocked him out." One of the men spoke.
But then another voice spoke. "Take him to the HQ."
I let out a grunt, before my body fell down to the ground. Within moments, I was asleep.
Chapter 3 : Meeting Tony Stark
I opened my eyes to see a whole new background or scenery. It was a room, an interrogation room, like the ones that OZ used. There was a transparent wall, where I could see the interrogators questioning me. Likewise, the integrators could also see me.
I tried to move, but I saw that there were chains that restrained me.
"Took you long to figure out the chains." A voice spoke. I looked through the transparent wall where I saw an African American man looking at me. He had a mustache and a beard, but what was most interesting about him, was the fact that he had an eyepatch that covered his right eye. Was he a soldier, who fought hard in battle?
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I was actually going to ask you the same question." He replied. "My name is Nick Fury, the head of SHIELD. Now who are you?"
I took a deep breath. "My name is Miliardo Peacecraft, leader of the White Fang, of the Colonies. "
"White Fang?" He asked. "I never heard of it."
"That's because I'm not from this world." I replied.
He looked a bit puzzled and surprised. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." I replied.
Then Fury's eyes focused hard on me.
"Anyway, there's a man who is dying to see you." He spoke.
"It's someone I haven't met before I presume?" I asked.
"Well, let's say you two will be acquainted faster than you think." He replied.
Then he started to depart. After he left, a new man stepped into his place.
"Hi there." The new man spoke. "Um, I don't think we have met before."
"Quite the obvious statement." I spoke, as my eyes rolled. This guy could never be any more stupid. I thought in my head.
"Yeah." He said. "Well let's just get to the basics. My name is Tony Stark, and you are?"
"Miliardo." I replied. "Miliardo Peacecraft."
"Miliardo?" He asked. "That's an unusual name. Do you go by anything else?"
I took a deep breath. This man was really getting on my nerves.
"I used to be known as Zechs Marquis." I said.
"Zechs? It's even weirder than Miliardo." He said. "But I guess I can call you that. It's shorter anyway."
"Do you have anything else to say to me?" I spoke irritably.
"Well yeah." He said. "Um, here's the deal, Zechs. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions."
"Sounds fair enough." I said. "Go ahead and shoot."
"So my first question is." He said. "What's that giant robot you carried with you?"
My eyes grew in shock. Is Shield keeping the Epyon in its custody?
"It's called a Gundam." I said. "A mobile suit."
"So that's what you call it." He replied. "So why do you have this so called 'Gundam' ?"
"I was fighting my enemy in it. I come from a time where mobiles suits are used constantly for war." I replied.
"So you're a solider?" He deduced.
"Correct." I replied. At least he has some brains.
"How long have I been here?" I asked.
"Only for three hours." He replied.
"Are you still going to keep me hostage?" I suddenly asked.
"Nope, I'm going to let you go." He said, as he pressed a button. Suddenly, the chains that binded me, broke, and I got up.
As I got out of the room, Tony Stark came up to me.
"You're free to go home." He said cheerfully.
"Where is home for a solider, Tony Stark?" I asked, and he looked at me strangely.
"A battlefield is home for a warrior, but in my world, the war must have ended. Therefore, I'm not needed there and probably not here also." I stated.
"I think you'll find yourself comfortable at my house. My house is large by the way." He said, as he started to walk. I followed him. "It's kind of a large house. Well not really a large, large house, but you get the point."
"I see." I said, as I walked with him. Promptly, we were escorted to a nice looking car by some body guard.
As the car drove away, I looked at the sky. Home. Will I ever return home?
Chapter 4: The new suit
We arrived at Stark's home. It was impressively large on the inside, if I do say so myself. He's wasn't joking at all.
"Make yourself at comfortable." Tony Stark spoke, as he walked downstairs to the basement where I followed him curiously.
"This is the basement." He said. "My basement."
"I see." I said, as I observed the room. His basement was different from the other parts of his house. Instead of sofas, chairs, and furniture, there were tools, such as wrenches.
But then I saw all these models, figures that were made of metal. They looked like mobile suits, but they were way too small to even be classified as one.
"These are my toys." He spoke gleefully, as he looked at the metal suits. "I own a company called Stark Industries, so I build them there and take them home."
"But why are there wrenches?" I asked, I observed the tools behind me.
"Sometimes I take my work to my house. It's kinda a hobby, but I guess you can say it's an addiction." He said as he scratched his head.
"Addiction?" I asked.
"Yeah, you can call me a workaholic." Tony said. "But I really like doing my work, so it's not work at all."
"I see." I spoke, as I became instantly bored with Stark bragging about his creations. I began to turn around, but then something had caught my eye.
"What's that?" I asked curiously, as I walked towards an object that was covered with drapes.
"This is actually something I worked on recently. And by recently, I mean like yesterday."
"Can I?" I asked.
"Sure." He spoke. "Go ahead. Be my guest."
I nodded my head, and I quickly removed the drapes from the object.
I saw something red enter my field of vision.
My eyes widened at the appearance of this object.
It couldn't be. I thought.
"Do you like?" He asked, but I stood there stunned.
Chapter 5: Meeting Pepper Potts
"How?" I asked, as I continue to stare into the object's metallic eyes.
"I had some free time in my hands." Stark replied.
I stood there silent.
"You know, your robot was pretty interesting." He said. "The mechanics, the weaponry, everything."
"You got into the Epyon?" I said.
"Yeah. It was protected by some sort of sensor, but I eventually bypassed it." He replied. What a genius. I thought.
"What else did you find?" I asked.
"Other than the robot's weaponry, I was most intrigued by the cockpit. Or least it looked like a cockpit." He explained.
I stood there silent.
"Your cockpit." He said. "Has some sort of system. A combat system."
Damn. He figured it out. The Zero system.
"It's called the ZERO System." I said. "It's a combat system like you said, but it also what makes my robot sentient."
Tony Stark looked at me like I was crazy.
"You mean, you're saying that your robot is alive?" He asked, in utter bewilderment
"In a way, yes." I replied back. "The system allows my gundam to talk to me; it feeds data in my brain."
"Did you need wires to do that?" He asked.
"Not necessarily." I stated. "The Gundam can feed data in the pilot's brain without any wires."
After talking to Stark, I looked at the figure which was an exact miniature duplicate of my Epyon. The appearance was exactly identical from right down to the legs to the chest plate with the green orb.
"I made an exact duplicate of your robot." He stated.
"I can see that." I said as I looked at his face rather seriously. "But why?"
"Like I said, I have a lot of free time in my hands."
"No." I spoke confidently. "You're lying."
"Okay." He spoke waving his hands in the air. "You got me. The real reason I made this thing, was for you to help me."
"What makes you think I'll help you?" I asked.
"Well firstly, you can't escape in your robot. Your robots has only one arm and trust me, you're not going to go very far. Besides, Fury might hunt you down if you try to even escape. Buddy, it's a lose-lose situation for you." He replied.
"But still." I protested.
"Come on." He said as he wrapped his arm around me. "Think about it. You got nothing to lose, 'Zechsy'. Ha, that rhymes with sexy! Sexy Zechsy!"
Ha. Ha. Very funny.
"I guess so." I spoke sadly, as I stared at the ground.
But then the basement door suddenly opened. My eyes turned to the appearance of a red headed lady. She was dressed as if she had just walked out a conference room. She was obviously different from Noin given her hair color, and the length of her hair. It was long. But not too long.
"Tony. We have to discuss some things." The woman spoke, looking at Stark. Then she looked at me. "Who's your friend?"
"Pepper." He said, as he introduced me. "This is Zechs Marquis."
"Miliardo." I said.
"What?" He asked.
"I liked to be known as Miliardo when being addressed formally to other people, but in the battle, I should be known as Zechs." I said.
Tony Stark, the brilliant genius was baffled, and so was the woman in front of me. I knew they couldn't handle my presence, my existence in their world. It was all too much for them to handle.
"Miliardo, will you excuse Tony? He has something important to discuss with me." She spoke with concern
"Go ahead." I said. "He'll all yours."
Soon after the two left, I looked at the Red suit that reminded me of my Gundam.
"Epyon, will you let me pilot you again?" I asked.
Will you give me another chance? I thought.
The Red suit didn't give any response. Although it was inanimate, but I could still feel it calling to me.
Chapter 6: Challenge Accepted: Miliardo vs Tony
I sat on Tony Stark's couch as I watched some television. The news kept me amused for a while. Iron Man, Hulk, Thor. Who were they? Were they warriors that saved the Earth, for their own personal benefit, or did they do from the compassion and kindness from their hearts?
I didn't know the answer to those questions, until Tony came to explain to me the truth.
"Sorry for keeping you too long, Miliardo, err Zechs." He struggled.
"Zechs is fine, when we are talking privately." I said.
"You're confusing." He said.
"Just tell me what you have to say." I spoke.
"I really have nothing to tell you. Pepper was just keeping me for a bit longer, and I was concerned that you would be mad with me." He said honestly.
"I really don't mind, Stark." I said. "It's perfectly fine to talk to women."
He blushed. "You know?" He asked.
"Yes." I said, getting up. "When I was at OZ, I came in contact with many women. In fact, the Red headed lady you were talking to earlier, reminds me of one of her."
"You mean Pepper?" He asked.
"Yes." I nodded my head. "She reminds of one of my friends from flight School. She has a similar personality, a similar kindness, a similar compassion, a fire in her eyes, a similar genuine expression."
"What's was her name?" Tony asked. "That girl from Flight School."
"Her name was Noin." I said. "Lucrezia Noin."
"Does she have feelings for you?" He asked me.
That question really hit me. It was personal. He shouldn't have asked me.
I didn't answer for a while. I looked away from him.
"It's okay if you don't want to answer." He spoke sadly. "I shouldn't have asked you that, I didn't know."
"No, it's fine." I spoke turning to him. "And yes, she does have feelings for me."
"Oh" was his response as he quickly sat in his cozy couch.
Then he changed the subject.
"Say, do you want to test out the new suit?" I asked.
I nodded my head. "May I?" I asked.
"Of course." He said. "But let's make this like a test. Okay?"
"A test?" I asked.
"Yeah." He proclaimed. "Your suit against mine. One on one. Whadda ya say?"
"Well I say." I replied as I moved towards him. "Challenged accepted."
Chapter:
After Tony Stark challenged me to a duel, he suddenly left with his suit. I was puzzled, confused as of where he would go at a time like this.
Suddenly the phone rang. I picked it up.
"Zechs." Tony's voice echoed from the phone.
"Yes, Tony?" I asked.
"Your suit's in the basement." He replied, as I quickly went to the basement, carrying the phone with me.
"Ok, where is my suit?" I asked, as I searched through the collection of Iron suits.
"The same place where you found it." He answered, and I quickly ran to my Epyon suit.
When I got there, I was shocked. Where was the head? The arms? The Legs?
"Tony." I spoke crossly. "What did you do?"
"Touch it." Tony said.
"What?"
"Touch the suit. Anywhere on it." Tony replied vaguely.
"Ok." I said, as I looked at the only part of my Epyon suit that was left: the chest. I took a deep breath and stretched my hand out, touching the green orb of the suit. Suddenly the suit moved. I trembled slightly, as the suit began to latch on me. Its hard metal began to fuse with my flesh. Soon after, my hands and feet were covered with a red layer. In fact my entire body was covered by the red coat of metal. Then something happened. My face was eclipsed by something, a mask, yes. It was dark inside, but things began to light up inside.
To the right of my face, showed a holographic image of the Epyon suit was shown. To the bottom of that image, shown the words, "OZ-Epyon". But suddenly, everything turned yellow for a while. I suddenly saw the words, "EPYON SYSTEM" appear at the bottom left of my face.
"Epyon, are you alive?" I whispered silently. "Can you hear me?"
The suit responded by showing me a visual screen.
I turned my head towards a mirror that was to the side of me.
I walked to it, wanting to know what I looked like, after my "little transformation".
In the mirror, there was a figure staring at me. It didn't bear the appearance of a blond haired man, but a suit of metal in his place.
The Epyon and I are one again once more.
And nothing will tear us apart.
Nothing.
"Epyon," I spoke. "Show me Victory!"