Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, or
Episode Zero. All Copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Author's Notes: I had help from Turles with this Episode Zero fic. I'd thanked him for his help.
Gundam Wing: Zone of the Enders: Episode Zero
Chapter 2: Billy Lee Black
A.C. 188
Colony L-4:
Billy Lee sat at the dinner table waiting for the night's feast to begin. The table Billy sat at was simply a square metal table. Sitting next to him was his sister Shana Black who smiled at Billy with her child's smile complementing her blue eyes and her silvery white hair. In her hands she had her utensils eagerly awaiting dinner with her knife in one hand and a fork in the other. This is what events are like at dinnertime.
Billy looked towards the kitchen where his mother stood adding the finishing touches to dinner. Life was like this ever since Billy and Shana's father Tomas Black had disappeared. Billy presumed that he was dead, then again he didn't care, he wanted to dedicate himself to taking care of his mother and sister. That was his mission and that is what Billy made sure of, even though he was only eleven years old.
"Alright kids." Billy's mother called out from the kitchen, "It's time."
"Goodie!" Shana called out, "Dinner time!"
Billy smiled at her sister then looked towards his mother as she brought the dinner to the table. She came and set the food down on the table.
BAM!
The front door was kicked in, Billy's head snapped towards the direction of the noise. Billy saw four men dressed in OZ uniforms, all of them had sickening smiles on their faces. The kind that a psychotic would wear just before they killed their victims. Each soldier had a bottle in their hand, Billy instantly knew that they were all filled with liquor for whatever dark deeds they were going to do here.
"Hey boys!" One of the drunken soldiers called, "check out Martha Stewart!"
The drunken soldiers all laughed that liquor laughter with the occasional burp between each laugh. As they laughed one of the soldiers lunged forward for Billy's mother who looked helpless in her housedress with her apron. Perhaps it was some kind of sick fetish that the drunken soldier had.
Billy jumped out of his chair and went for the soldier who was trying to get at his mother. He knew that in the absence of his father Billy would have to be the substitute as the man of the house. He went for the drunk soldier, he saw the soldiers hand go for his mothers chest. He wanted to take that hand and snap it in two like a dried out twig. But that's not how it went for Billy, the soldier grabbed Billy. He held him by his wrists and twisted them around his back. The soldier wanted to make sure that Billy was in a good deal of pain and couldn't escape.
"Hey boys!" The soldier called, "Check out our hero here!"
All of the Oz soldiers eyes were looking at Billy; some were laughing while others were just taking more swigs of whatever booze they had on hand.
"Yeah." One of the drunk soldiers called, he looked at Billy with funny glazed eyes, "A regular Heero Yuy, he is."
Billy suddenly felt an enormous thump from behind his neck. He couldn't tell what it was, it felt cold against his skin but if felt as though it shattered when it made contact. He even felt a splash of a liquid against the back of his neck as the shards of whatever hit him went into pieces. He was loosing consciousness as he tumbled to the floor. The last words he heard as he tumbled to the floor were one phrase from one of the soldiers.
"Ah man!" The voice called, "I lost one of my bottles."
All went black from Billy's point of view but the true horror was going on outside. The Oz Soldiers in their drunken state attacked Billy's mother; they ripped off her dress and apron and satisfied their own ugly needs on the poor woman.
The first soldier to get a chance was the one who knocked Billy out with his liquor bottles. He was the first to have his own pleasure satisfied out of Billy's mother who was struggling to get away. But this first soldier knocked Billy's mother out so that she wouldn't struggle so much. Then the next soldier fulfilled his pleasure, and then the next. All of this horror and travesty was going on in front of the young eyes of Shana Black who still held onto the fork and knife in her young hands.
Time passed for Billy as light came back into his senses her reached to the back of his neck feeling the throbbing pain inside his head and the stickiness on his skin. He could only concentrate on the pain at least until he couldn't hear the voices of the soldiers. He looked out the front door to where they kicked in. They were gone. What happened to his mother?
He turned and looked towards the kitchen and found his mother there on the floor. She had her dress and undergarments ripped off, she was sprawled out with her legs spread and her face was looking up with glassy frozen fear.
Billy raised his hand to his mouth while his face began to lock into fear. He first went down to his mothers' side to see if she was still alive. She couldn't see her chest move, nor could he feel her pulse at her neck or her wrist. Suddenly he had the realisation that she isn't alive anymore, but there was another concern that he had to take care of before he could mourn, Shana.
He dashed back to where he remembered Shana was sitting. She was still there, untouched and unmoved by what just happened. She just sat there at her seat with the knife and fork in her hands and gazing forward. Just staring like a stuffed animal on a hunter's wall, completely motionless.
"Shana" Billy called. "Shana."
He reached over and tried to shake her to see if she would snap out of the trance that she was in. Billy tried to shake her again but she wouldn't budge, she still kept still motionless and silent.
"Shana!" Billy shouted
This time Shana looked at Billy with that same glare that she was making in the direction of her attacked mother. Shana didn't say a word but she dropped her knife and fork and raised her hands to Billy. She wrapped her arms around Billy and buried her face in his chest. Billy expected Shana to start crying and calling for their mother but she didn't say a word, she kept silent.
Billy mutually wrapped his arms around his young sister and looked back at his mother lying naked and violated on the kitchen floor. It was a horrible way to die; Billy turned his head and buried his face into Shana's shoulder. He cried there, it was just an ordinary day but now his mother was dead and his sister had gone mute.
"Oh, God!" Billy sobbed, "I'm sorry Shana, I couldn't protect you or mom, but I swear I will protect you, so help me God!"
He picked up his sister and headed for his mother's bedroom, there was something there that he needed before he left. He knew that he couldn't go to the police on this colony, because they police are too close to Oz and the Alliance. In short, the police is the Alliance's back pocket so trying to report and event such as that would be futile.
Billy came to his mothers' bedroom and laid his sister on the bed. Shana went from being silent to starting to suck on her own thumb. While she did that Billy rummaged through his mothers' closet. He went through all her collection of shoes and dresses. Until at last he came to a small chest, the chest was black leather with gold hinges and key latch. Billy lifted the latch and looked into the chest, there within the black felt he found what he had been looking for.
Nestled within the black felt were twin guns, they were called HK Mk23.0 SOCOM .45ACP, or Socom pistols, as Billy liked to call them. These were the only things that his father left behind. They were like .45 magnums but they were much heavier. Especially to Billy at the age he was at.
He closed the lid of the case and got out a suitcase and packed any clothes of his or Shana's that he could. He knew that both he and Shana couldn't stay at this house. They had to go somewhere, he didn't know where but he knew that he had to go somewhere away from here.
He shoved in the chest that held the Socom pistols put on his long blue trench coat, took Shana's hand and left his home that he had known since childhood.
He took one last look at his house before he left and looked back at Shana who still sucked silently on her thumb. She looked up at Billy with her own kind eyes, it was as if she was saying to Billy that it wasn't his fault but Billy had a different point of view.
"I swear by God, Shana" He vowed. "I will protect you until my last breath"
***
A.C. 188
Colony L-2:
Billy sat in the Maxwell church as the rebel soldiers began to pour in. Billy and his sister Shana had been living here for the past few months ever since their mother was attacked and left dead in their home. They knew that they couldn't go to the police nor could they do anything about it.
As they were wandering the streets something guided Billy's sense of wandering aimlessly to the Maxwell church. Billy settled with Father Maxwell and Sister Helen, both of them took them in and tried to comfort them of their loss. Unfortunately Shana wouldn't say a word even after all those months of being there. According to Billy after what she had seen happen to her mother she had lost her voice.
Father Maxwell and Sister Helen loved the two of them as much as this one boy named Duo. Billy did speak with Duo several times and Duo was awfully curious about the little black chest that Billy would carry around. So were the Father and the Sister, however Billy wouldn't let anyone near his chest, no matter what.
Billy watched the soldiers and injured people come pour into the church as if they were using this place as their own headquarters. Billy hated them immediately because they reminded him of those Oz soldiers that bashed into his home, took advantage of his mother and made him live like a refugee.
He over heard them talking.
The leader said, "No matter what we've got to capture the base at point G2! That's the only option we have left"
"Yes Sir" His underlings called
Duo who was sitting along with Billy and Shana watching this had his own thoughts about this, It's starting all over again" He thought. "We were all living happily until just yesterday."
"Just one mobile suit" One soldier stated. "If we can get that, then freedom will be ours."
Father Maxwell stepped forward towards the soldiers like Christ to the sick and injured, "Haven't we had enough of this?" He asked
"What did you say?!" the Leader asked
Father Maxwell started his own sermon of peace, "Didn't Heero Yuy once say, we the people of the colonies didn't come to live in space so we could fight, no matter what happens we must not fight."
"Bastard!" The leader insulted, "I dare you to say that again!"
"I'll keep saying it over and over" Father Maxwell reassured. "We must not fight."
Billy and Duo watched as one of the rebel soldiers lunged forward with his fist out and struck the peace-preaching father to the floor.
"Hey!" Duo and Billy called out
Sister Helen immediately came to the care of the Father, "Stop it!" She pleaded, "Please! Please, no more."
Another one of the rebels lunged forward, this time it was a woman. "Shut up!" She demanded, "We've got to have total solidarity. Why are you confusing people with useless talk of peace at a time like this?! They might be alliance spies."
Sister Helen sat up and began to rub the wound within her face, "It's possible," She said. "But…"
"Shall we make 'em confess?" The woman rebel asked
These rebels annoyed Billy; he felt the leather of the chest that he's carried ever since that day. He wanted to reach into them and pull out the twin Socom pistols and shoot all the Rebels that came within his sights, and then he knew that he couldn't. It would be like him fighting those Oz soldiers again; he'd be outmatched six to one.
Just then Duo stood up, "Hey wait!" He called, "All you want's one mobile suit?!"
"Huh?" The rebels asked in unison.
"I'll go steal one for you!" He volunteered, "And in return I want you guys to get out of here. This is supposed to be a peaceful place!"
"Hmp, the brat's talking nonsense" The rebel leader sneered at the young boy.
"I may run and I may hide…" Duo stated from his high horse, "but I don't' tell lies like you guys."
"Say what?!" The rebels asked, they were all surprised at what the child had said to them.
The sister didn't want this to happen, she called out "Duo! Don't…"
"One mobile suit, coming right up!" Duo said like a waiter at a diner.
Sister Helen called out again to the running boy, "Duo!"
***
Billy had watched Duo run and try to settle things between the rebels and those within the church. Billy knew that this wouldn't solve anything, even if Duo had stolen the mobile suit, the Alliance would more than likely come look for it.
Suddenly Billy heard a great crash and he then knew that the Alliance was attacking the church. He went to the side of his sister Shana and hid her under a pew. As soon as his sister was out of danger he went to the father and sister.
"We've got to get out of here!" He shouted over the sounds of gunfire and mobile suits attacking.
"No" The father refused, "They must understand peace. They must realise that fighting will only lead to more deaths and chaos. I wonder where Duo is at a time like this."
"What good is it to preach peace if you're dead?"
Just then the roof began to collapse Billy tried to grab the Sister and the Father, but he could only manage the sister as the roof came down on the father.
"Father Maxwell!" Billy called
Billy left the side of the sister as he tried to rummage through the debris. As he did the ceiling kept coming down on him and while he wasn't looking a piece of the ceiling came down on the sister. Billy heard the noise and he went to the side of the sister and stayed at her side.
"Hang on, Sister" He begged. "I'll go get a doctor!"
"No" The sister refuted, "I know my time is coming, I want you to be at my side. I don't want to die alone."
"I'll stay sister." Billy reassured.
As the fighting continued and the slaughter raged on Billy still kept to the side of Sister Helena and Shana. He even stayed there as the fighting stopped. He knew that this would be a massacre that history should never forget. He suddenly heard a small mousy voice come from behind him.
"No…this…can't be…"
Billy heard Sister Helen call, "Duo…I'm glad…you're safe."
"Sister!" Duo called as he came to the side of Billy and Sister Helen.
"Don't make us worry like that," Helen scolded. "Father was worried about you…even to the end…"
"I'll go get a doctor!" Duo shouted nervously
Sister Helen continued to speak, "Th-the alliance came...and attacked. But we couldn't leave…the church."
"W-was it my fault?! Because I stole the mobile suit from the alliance?"
"F-Father was so noble. H-He kept…preaching peace…Billy tried to save him but the roof was too heavy."
"That's not noble! That's just dumb! What the point if he's dead now?!"
Billy couldn't agree more with the pony tailed boy, he was there even when he couldn't save the father. History was repeating for Billy, he couldn't' save his mother now he couldn't save the sister or the father.
"Duo… m-may you…have God's…blessings…"
"Uh…uh…uaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" Duo cried
Billy reached up and closed the sisters eyes, "I'm sorry Duo, there's nothing I could do."
"You could have gone for a doctor!" Duo cried with fierceness.
"I couldn't the sister asked me to stay here by her side." Billy explained
"And now she's dead!"
"People die, it's simply a fact."
Billy and Duo together dug a small hole in the ground and buried the sister there. Both of them stood in mourning over the people who were like second parents to them. Billy reached for his sisters hand and took the suitcase that had his black leather chest packed safely inside it. He turned and was about to leave the site of the Maxwell massacre. Then he heard the same small mousy voice coming from Duo.
"Let me come with you, Billy." He asked
Billy thought about it, but for some reason he knew that he couldn't, "Sorry Duo" He apologised. "You have a different destiny from me."
"What is my destiny?" Duo asked himself
"That's something you have to find out for yourself, Duo. Call it a gut feeling or divine inspiration from God, but I know that I'll take a different path from you. So take care Duo Maxwell, in whatever path you take."
Duo watched Billy Lee Black walk away from the site where they had buried the sister and somehow Duo understood something. He understood that paths between people can split at different times in life.
"You take care too." Duo silently wished to Billy and his sister.
***
A.C. 193
Luna 2:
Billy walked through the Spaceport holding his sisters' hand. Travelling with her had been like this ever since they had left the Maxwell church. However, Billy went from church to church until someone offered him a job. The job was that he would travel from church to church and report back what was found to the High Council of the Church. Report how the church is doing and also investigate any kinds of misconduct among the parish priests or sisters. Billy was on Luna to report the findings to the High Council.
As he walked through the Spaceport he heard a voice call out to him.
"Billy Lee Black"
Billy stopped and looked behind him and there he saw a young boy. The boy had black hair and glaring eyes that seemed to show kindness with the first glance. The boy was wearing a long black cloak that made Billy think of those old Sherlock Holmes novels. Billy kept looking at the boy from head to toe.
"That's my name" Billy concurred. "But I don't think you've extended the same courtesy to me."
"I'm here to offer you a job."
"I already have a job with the High Council of the Church."
"I've already contacted them and every things cleared with them. You see, I've been looking for someone like you. Once I told them who I was and who I was working for, they said I could recruit you."
Billy wanted to test this, "And who are you and who do you work for?"
The boy stepped closer to Billy, "My name is Kamui Hyuga, Knight of the Sank Kingdom."
And the rest is history…
Next Time on Episode Zero: The Valentine Siblings
Author's Notes: I had help from Turles with this Episode Zero fic. I'd thanked him for his help.
Gundam Wing: Zone of the Enders: Episode Zero
Chapter 2: Billy Lee Black
A.C. 188
Colony L-4:
Billy Lee sat at the dinner table waiting for the night's feast to begin. The table Billy sat at was simply a square metal table. Sitting next to him was his sister Shana Black who smiled at Billy with her child's smile complementing her blue eyes and her silvery white hair. In her hands she had her utensils eagerly awaiting dinner with her knife in one hand and a fork in the other. This is what events are like at dinnertime.
Billy looked towards the kitchen where his mother stood adding the finishing touches to dinner. Life was like this ever since Billy and Shana's father Tomas Black had disappeared. Billy presumed that he was dead, then again he didn't care, he wanted to dedicate himself to taking care of his mother and sister. That was his mission and that is what Billy made sure of, even though he was only eleven years old.
"Alright kids." Billy's mother called out from the kitchen, "It's time."
"Goodie!" Shana called out, "Dinner time!"
Billy smiled at her sister then looked towards his mother as she brought the dinner to the table. She came and set the food down on the table.
BAM!
The front door was kicked in, Billy's head snapped towards the direction of the noise. Billy saw four men dressed in OZ uniforms, all of them had sickening smiles on their faces. The kind that a psychotic would wear just before they killed their victims. Each soldier had a bottle in their hand, Billy instantly knew that they were all filled with liquor for whatever dark deeds they were going to do here.
"Hey boys!" One of the drunken soldiers called, "check out Martha Stewart!"
The drunken soldiers all laughed that liquor laughter with the occasional burp between each laugh. As they laughed one of the soldiers lunged forward for Billy's mother who looked helpless in her housedress with her apron. Perhaps it was some kind of sick fetish that the drunken soldier had.
Billy jumped out of his chair and went for the soldier who was trying to get at his mother. He knew that in the absence of his father Billy would have to be the substitute as the man of the house. He went for the drunk soldier, he saw the soldiers hand go for his mothers chest. He wanted to take that hand and snap it in two like a dried out twig. But that's not how it went for Billy, the soldier grabbed Billy. He held him by his wrists and twisted them around his back. The soldier wanted to make sure that Billy was in a good deal of pain and couldn't escape.
"Hey boys!" The soldier called, "Check out our hero here!"
All of the Oz soldiers eyes were looking at Billy; some were laughing while others were just taking more swigs of whatever booze they had on hand.
"Yeah." One of the drunk soldiers called, he looked at Billy with funny glazed eyes, "A regular Heero Yuy, he is."
Billy suddenly felt an enormous thump from behind his neck. He couldn't tell what it was, it felt cold against his skin but if felt as though it shattered when it made contact. He even felt a splash of a liquid against the back of his neck as the shards of whatever hit him went into pieces. He was loosing consciousness as he tumbled to the floor. The last words he heard as he tumbled to the floor were one phrase from one of the soldiers.
"Ah man!" The voice called, "I lost one of my bottles."
All went black from Billy's point of view but the true horror was going on outside. The Oz Soldiers in their drunken state attacked Billy's mother; they ripped off her dress and apron and satisfied their own ugly needs on the poor woman.
The first soldier to get a chance was the one who knocked Billy out with his liquor bottles. He was the first to have his own pleasure satisfied out of Billy's mother who was struggling to get away. But this first soldier knocked Billy's mother out so that she wouldn't struggle so much. Then the next soldier fulfilled his pleasure, and then the next. All of this horror and travesty was going on in front of the young eyes of Shana Black who still held onto the fork and knife in her young hands.
Time passed for Billy as light came back into his senses her reached to the back of his neck feeling the throbbing pain inside his head and the stickiness on his skin. He could only concentrate on the pain at least until he couldn't hear the voices of the soldiers. He looked out the front door to where they kicked in. They were gone. What happened to his mother?
He turned and looked towards the kitchen and found his mother there on the floor. She had her dress and undergarments ripped off, she was sprawled out with her legs spread and her face was looking up with glassy frozen fear.
Billy raised his hand to his mouth while his face began to lock into fear. He first went down to his mothers' side to see if she was still alive. She couldn't see her chest move, nor could he feel her pulse at her neck or her wrist. Suddenly he had the realisation that she isn't alive anymore, but there was another concern that he had to take care of before he could mourn, Shana.
He dashed back to where he remembered Shana was sitting. She was still there, untouched and unmoved by what just happened. She just sat there at her seat with the knife and fork in her hands and gazing forward. Just staring like a stuffed animal on a hunter's wall, completely motionless.
"Shana" Billy called. "Shana."
He reached over and tried to shake her to see if she would snap out of the trance that she was in. Billy tried to shake her again but she wouldn't budge, she still kept still motionless and silent.
"Shana!" Billy shouted
This time Shana looked at Billy with that same glare that she was making in the direction of her attacked mother. Shana didn't say a word but she dropped her knife and fork and raised her hands to Billy. She wrapped her arms around Billy and buried her face in his chest. Billy expected Shana to start crying and calling for their mother but she didn't say a word, she kept silent.
Billy mutually wrapped his arms around his young sister and looked back at his mother lying naked and violated on the kitchen floor. It was a horrible way to die; Billy turned his head and buried his face into Shana's shoulder. He cried there, it was just an ordinary day but now his mother was dead and his sister had gone mute.
"Oh, God!" Billy sobbed, "I'm sorry Shana, I couldn't protect you or mom, but I swear I will protect you, so help me God!"
He picked up his sister and headed for his mother's bedroom, there was something there that he needed before he left. He knew that he couldn't go to the police on this colony, because they police are too close to Oz and the Alliance. In short, the police is the Alliance's back pocket so trying to report and event such as that would be futile.
Billy came to his mothers' bedroom and laid his sister on the bed. Shana went from being silent to starting to suck on her own thumb. While she did that Billy rummaged through his mothers' closet. He went through all her collection of shoes and dresses. Until at last he came to a small chest, the chest was black leather with gold hinges and key latch. Billy lifted the latch and looked into the chest, there within the black felt he found what he had been looking for.
Nestled within the black felt were twin guns, they were called HK Mk23.0 SOCOM .45ACP, or Socom pistols, as Billy liked to call them. These were the only things that his father left behind. They were like .45 magnums but they were much heavier. Especially to Billy at the age he was at.
He closed the lid of the case and got out a suitcase and packed any clothes of his or Shana's that he could. He knew that both he and Shana couldn't stay at this house. They had to go somewhere, he didn't know where but he knew that he had to go somewhere away from here.
He shoved in the chest that held the Socom pistols put on his long blue trench coat, took Shana's hand and left his home that he had known since childhood.
He took one last look at his house before he left and looked back at Shana who still sucked silently on her thumb. She looked up at Billy with her own kind eyes, it was as if she was saying to Billy that it wasn't his fault but Billy had a different point of view.
"I swear by God, Shana" He vowed. "I will protect you until my last breath"
***
A.C. 188
Colony L-2:
Billy sat in the Maxwell church as the rebel soldiers began to pour in. Billy and his sister Shana had been living here for the past few months ever since their mother was attacked and left dead in their home. They knew that they couldn't go to the police nor could they do anything about it.
As they were wandering the streets something guided Billy's sense of wandering aimlessly to the Maxwell church. Billy settled with Father Maxwell and Sister Helen, both of them took them in and tried to comfort them of their loss. Unfortunately Shana wouldn't say a word even after all those months of being there. According to Billy after what she had seen happen to her mother she had lost her voice.
Father Maxwell and Sister Helen loved the two of them as much as this one boy named Duo. Billy did speak with Duo several times and Duo was awfully curious about the little black chest that Billy would carry around. So were the Father and the Sister, however Billy wouldn't let anyone near his chest, no matter what.
Billy watched the soldiers and injured people come pour into the church as if they were using this place as their own headquarters. Billy hated them immediately because they reminded him of those Oz soldiers that bashed into his home, took advantage of his mother and made him live like a refugee.
He over heard them talking.
The leader said, "No matter what we've got to capture the base at point G2! That's the only option we have left"
"Yes Sir" His underlings called
Duo who was sitting along with Billy and Shana watching this had his own thoughts about this, It's starting all over again" He thought. "We were all living happily until just yesterday."
"Just one mobile suit" One soldier stated. "If we can get that, then freedom will be ours."
Father Maxwell stepped forward towards the soldiers like Christ to the sick and injured, "Haven't we had enough of this?" He asked
"What did you say?!" the Leader asked
Father Maxwell started his own sermon of peace, "Didn't Heero Yuy once say, we the people of the colonies didn't come to live in space so we could fight, no matter what happens we must not fight."
"Bastard!" The leader insulted, "I dare you to say that again!"
"I'll keep saying it over and over" Father Maxwell reassured. "We must not fight."
Billy and Duo watched as one of the rebel soldiers lunged forward with his fist out and struck the peace-preaching father to the floor.
"Hey!" Duo and Billy called out
Sister Helen immediately came to the care of the Father, "Stop it!" She pleaded, "Please! Please, no more."
Another one of the rebels lunged forward, this time it was a woman. "Shut up!" She demanded, "We've got to have total solidarity. Why are you confusing people with useless talk of peace at a time like this?! They might be alliance spies."
Sister Helen sat up and began to rub the wound within her face, "It's possible," She said. "But…"
"Shall we make 'em confess?" The woman rebel asked
These rebels annoyed Billy; he felt the leather of the chest that he's carried ever since that day. He wanted to reach into them and pull out the twin Socom pistols and shoot all the Rebels that came within his sights, and then he knew that he couldn't. It would be like him fighting those Oz soldiers again; he'd be outmatched six to one.
Just then Duo stood up, "Hey wait!" He called, "All you want's one mobile suit?!"
"Huh?" The rebels asked in unison.
"I'll go steal one for you!" He volunteered, "And in return I want you guys to get out of here. This is supposed to be a peaceful place!"
"Hmp, the brat's talking nonsense" The rebel leader sneered at the young boy.
"I may run and I may hide…" Duo stated from his high horse, "but I don't' tell lies like you guys."
"Say what?!" The rebels asked, they were all surprised at what the child had said to them.
The sister didn't want this to happen, she called out "Duo! Don't…"
"One mobile suit, coming right up!" Duo said like a waiter at a diner.
Sister Helen called out again to the running boy, "Duo!"
***
Billy had watched Duo run and try to settle things between the rebels and those within the church. Billy knew that this wouldn't solve anything, even if Duo had stolen the mobile suit, the Alliance would more than likely come look for it.
Suddenly Billy heard a great crash and he then knew that the Alliance was attacking the church. He went to the side of his sister Shana and hid her under a pew. As soon as his sister was out of danger he went to the father and sister.
"We've got to get out of here!" He shouted over the sounds of gunfire and mobile suits attacking.
"No" The father refused, "They must understand peace. They must realise that fighting will only lead to more deaths and chaos. I wonder where Duo is at a time like this."
"What good is it to preach peace if you're dead?"
Just then the roof began to collapse Billy tried to grab the Sister and the Father, but he could only manage the sister as the roof came down on the father.
"Father Maxwell!" Billy called
Billy left the side of the sister as he tried to rummage through the debris. As he did the ceiling kept coming down on him and while he wasn't looking a piece of the ceiling came down on the sister. Billy heard the noise and he went to the side of the sister and stayed at her side.
"Hang on, Sister" He begged. "I'll go get a doctor!"
"No" The sister refuted, "I know my time is coming, I want you to be at my side. I don't want to die alone."
"I'll stay sister." Billy reassured.
As the fighting continued and the slaughter raged on Billy still kept to the side of Sister Helena and Shana. He even stayed there as the fighting stopped. He knew that this would be a massacre that history should never forget. He suddenly heard a small mousy voice come from behind him.
"No…this…can't be…"
Billy heard Sister Helen call, "Duo…I'm glad…you're safe."
"Sister!" Duo called as he came to the side of Billy and Sister Helen.
"Don't make us worry like that," Helen scolded. "Father was worried about you…even to the end…"
"I'll go get a doctor!" Duo shouted nervously
Sister Helen continued to speak, "Th-the alliance came...and attacked. But we couldn't leave…the church."
"W-was it my fault?! Because I stole the mobile suit from the alliance?"
"F-Father was so noble. H-He kept…preaching peace…Billy tried to save him but the roof was too heavy."
"That's not noble! That's just dumb! What the point if he's dead now?!"
Billy couldn't agree more with the pony tailed boy, he was there even when he couldn't save the father. History was repeating for Billy, he couldn't' save his mother now he couldn't save the sister or the father.
"Duo… m-may you…have God's…blessings…"
"Uh…uh…uaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" Duo cried
Billy reached up and closed the sisters eyes, "I'm sorry Duo, there's nothing I could do."
"You could have gone for a doctor!" Duo cried with fierceness.
"I couldn't the sister asked me to stay here by her side." Billy explained
"And now she's dead!"
"People die, it's simply a fact."
Billy and Duo together dug a small hole in the ground and buried the sister there. Both of them stood in mourning over the people who were like second parents to them. Billy reached for his sisters hand and took the suitcase that had his black leather chest packed safely inside it. He turned and was about to leave the site of the Maxwell massacre. Then he heard the same small mousy voice coming from Duo.
"Let me come with you, Billy." He asked
Billy thought about it, but for some reason he knew that he couldn't, "Sorry Duo" He apologised. "You have a different destiny from me."
"What is my destiny?" Duo asked himself
"That's something you have to find out for yourself, Duo. Call it a gut feeling or divine inspiration from God, but I know that I'll take a different path from you. So take care Duo Maxwell, in whatever path you take."
Duo watched Billy Lee Black walk away from the site where they had buried the sister and somehow Duo understood something. He understood that paths between people can split at different times in life.
"You take care too." Duo silently wished to Billy and his sister.
***
A.C. 193
Luna 2:
Billy walked through the Spaceport holding his sisters' hand. Travelling with her had been like this ever since they had left the Maxwell church. However, Billy went from church to church until someone offered him a job. The job was that he would travel from church to church and report back what was found to the High Council of the Church. Report how the church is doing and also investigate any kinds of misconduct among the parish priests or sisters. Billy was on Luna to report the findings to the High Council.
As he walked through the Spaceport he heard a voice call out to him.
"Billy Lee Black"
Billy stopped and looked behind him and there he saw a young boy. The boy had black hair and glaring eyes that seemed to show kindness with the first glance. The boy was wearing a long black cloak that made Billy think of those old Sherlock Holmes novels. Billy kept looking at the boy from head to toe.
"That's my name" Billy concurred. "But I don't think you've extended the same courtesy to me."
"I'm here to offer you a job."
"I already have a job with the High Council of the Church."
"I've already contacted them and every things cleared with them. You see, I've been looking for someone like you. Once I told them who I was and who I was working for, they said I could recruit you."
Billy wanted to test this, "And who are you and who do you work for?"
The boy stepped closer to Billy, "My name is Kamui Hyuga, Knight of the Sank Kingdom."
And the rest is history…
Next Time on Episode Zero: The Valentine Siblings