Two days later in another building on the abandoned air base, Miko waits for the pilots to show up. It's 2:15 in the morning and she should be able to see any headlights approaching the area. Even if they were driving without headlights, she has set sensors all around the perimeter of the base.
Not surprisingly, Duo shows up with Heero in tow without setting off a single sensor. A few minutes later, the perimeter sensors pick up a black limo approaching.
The heat sensors pick up 3 humans in the vehical. Miko sighs and opens the door for the pilots. Duo walks in and Heero follows closely behind with his gun in hand. Quatre steps out of the car with Trowa closely behind him.
Quatre instructs his driver to wait for his return. Miko smiles and shakes both Quatre and Trowa's hands.
"Hi it's nice to finally meet you Trowa, I'm Miko," she introduces herself to Trowa.
As she turns to introduce herself to Heero, he places the gun to her head and clearly states, "Don't touch me. How do we know this isn't a trap?"
Miko shakes her head and turns to get the refreshments she had prepared for this meeting; tea, coffee, soda, cookies, chips, finger sandwiches, and doughnuts.
"Would anybody like some food, or drink?" she offers.
Quatre fixes himself a cup of tea, Duo grabs some soda and sandwiches, and Trowa gets some tea and a few chips. Heero refrains from eating or drinking anything and keeps his gun trained on her head.
After everyone is content, they all seat around a table. Miko nurses her own cup of coffee and sighs, "So I'm assuming you all want to know why I need your help and what for," There are nods all around the table in agreement.
"OZ and many other militia type factions are trying to take over the Earth Sphere. Each faction has it's own plan to disrupt the peace between the Earth and the Colonies. We need to stop all of this and find someone with pure intentions to replace Relena."
At this, Heero stands suddenly and points the gun to Miko's head. "Nobody can replace her. She was the only one with such a clear view of what she wanted and of what peace meant. THERE IS NO OTHER!!!"
Miko takes a deep breath, "All personal opinions aside, this is what needs to happen. I was thinking instead of a single leader, we replace Relena with a council of people. Each focused on peace and how to improve conditions between the Earth and Colonies."
Quatre thinks for a few minutes and Duo speaks up, "But how're we supposed to do this? Won't all these factions have weapons? Possibly even Mobile Suits?"
Trowa nods and says something for the first time, "I've been keeping and eye on former OZ Mobile Suit activity, many have disappeared. Also, there are signs that others are developing new Mobile Suits. It's troubling, as if they were planning this, all of them."
Miko nods, "They aren't the only ones who have been anticipating this. Personally, I've been busy. The answer to your question, Duo, are Gundams. Your Gundams."
Heero and Trowa look somewhat taken aback, Duo looks surprised, and Quatre speaks out in horror, "We can't use them! They are the very ideal we're trying to defeat!"
Miko looks down and starts to speak carefully choosing her words, "Quatre, I understand your views, but war is the direct path to peace. War is the only way we can go about reinstating peace for the Earth Sphere. War is the last thing my parents would have wanted. It's the last thing my older sister and older brother would have wanted for me... But war is the path we must follow."
Heero levels his gun at her head again, "Who are you, really?"
Miko just repeats her name again, "I"m Miko Heiten."
Heero glares at her, "That's not your real name. Tell us your real name!"
Miko sighs, "Okay, will you tell me your real name? Will you reveal your past to everyone here? How about you Duo? Trowa? I think Quatre here is the only one who's been completely open about everything about him. The rest of you have things to hide. Just like I do. My birth name will get me killed, it's something I can never reveal about myself. Miko Heiten is the name I live by now. It's the name I've lived by since I was hidden for my own protection. It's the name I'll die by."
There is silence in the building until Trowa finally asks, "What did you mean when you said that Gundams are the way to peace?"
She nods, "I've rebuilt all of your Gundams. I'm currently working on the 4th version of the Gundams. Actually since Wufei won't join us, I'm finished with the 4th version of the Gundams. I was just working on a few little things on the Altron Gundam."
Duo squints his eyes at her, "And just how did you build them, let alone come across the designs for them?"
Miko smiles, "Everybody has their price. I bought the designs from the scientists that built them. As for building them, I guess you could say I'm just a damn good engineer. Of course, just because I had the designs doesn't mean I could read all your minds and modify them just as you did. You'll need to reinstall any personal preferences and modifications you did on your own."
Quatre looks down and takes a deep breath, "I'm still not sure about using them. This is a difficult time, but still they're objects of war and conflict."
Miko closes her eyes, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this. Quatre, your family's satellite is one of the first that will be targetted. Your family's colony is at the top of several terrorist faction lists." She gets out her laptop and shows him the intelligence she intercepted from 3 groups with several colonies at the top of the lists even Quatre's.
Quatre starts to become angry, "They'd target a colony full of people who want nothing more than peace and harmony for their families?! Fine, we'll use the Gundams just to keep things like this from happening."
Trowa puts his cup of tea down and looks straight at Quatre, "We'll have to disappear again."
Duo shrugs, "I don't really have anywhere I stay for too long anyway. And my boy Heero here, he's constantly undercover and pretty much impossible for anyone but us to find."
Quatre nods, "Three days, I'll need three days to get everything ready for my sisters. Then I'll be back."
Miko nods in agreement and gets up, "I have lodging here for those who want to stay here. Also you can get right to work on your Gundams."
Duo and Heero are the only ones that decide to stay to work on their old partners. Trowa and Quatre go back to the colony to for Trowa, notify them of his resignation, and for Quatre get things set up for his sisters. After Trowa and Quatre leave, Miko leads Duo and Heero to the apartments that are set up for them.
Duo suddenly asks, "When can we see our Gundams?"
Miko shrugs, "I could show you now if you wanted..."
Duo jumps excitedly, "Hell yeah!"
Miko leads the way to the hanger and then to the secret basement of the hanger where the Gundams are. Duo starts to freak out and as soon as he sees Deathscythe Hell, he crawls right into it and starts up it's basic systems.
Miko yawns widely and shouts up to Duo, "Hey, I'm gonna go to bed now. Do you remember how to shut everything off? and how to get back to your apartment?"
Duo shouts down a distracted, "Yeah yeah..." and Miko takes off for her own apartment.
She get's a shower and changes into pajamas before climbing into bed and falling asleep for several hours. However just like every morning, she wakes up at 5:30 any way and starts to make breakfast for everyone.
She scrambles several eggs, makes toast, pancakes, coffee, bacon and sausage and even squeezes oranges for fresh orange juice.
Heero gets up around 7:00 and walks into the dining room just off the kitchen. Miko smiles and wishes him a good morning then makes him a plate with eggs toast pancakes bacon and sausage and even pours him some orange juice and coffee. She sets it in front of him and sits across from him with her own plate.
"Um, Heero? Did you hear Duo go to bed lastnight?" Miko asks kind of concerned.
Heero shakes his head and eats. Miko gets up and goes to the hanger. As she descends the stairs she notices the lights are still on.
"Duo? Are you down here? Duo??" Miko asks as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.
Duo stumbles out of the cockpit of Deatscythe Hell and groans. "Hey ya baby! Ya wanna go for a ride in my pimpin' uh... MS?" Duo manages to gurgle out.
Miko just shakes her head, "Duo, you're really tired... and you sound high or drunk... how about you go sleep... ok?"
Duo just laughs maniacaly and stumbles off. Miko returns to the dining room just in time to see Heero finish his breakfast.
"Do you want to see the Gundams?" She asks.
Heero replies rather politely for him, "Sure, I'd like to see Wing again."
Miko leads him down to the hanger basement and shows him where Wing is. Heero nods in thanks and hops into Wing to start customizing it.
Miko can't surpress her curiosity and just blurts out the question she's had on her mind since Relena's funeral, "Heero, do you know who did it? Or how it happened?"
Heero pokes his head out of the cockpit and glares down at her, "No, I don't know who did it, and she was shot... while she was sleeping."
Miko looks down, "I'm sorry. It sounds like you were very close to her."
Heero just grunts as he goes back into his cockpit. Miko decides to work on the finishing touches of the Altron Gundam version 4.
Many long hours later, Duo makes his way back down to the work area. "Hey! I thought you were all finished with the specialization of the version 4 Gundams..."
Miko nods, "Yeah, I am, but just incase Wufei finds out about all this and decides to join us, I'll be prepared."
Duo shrugs, "I don't know why he didn't join up in the first place."
Heero speaks up from his cockpit, "Probably didn't agree with your ideals."
Miko shrugs, "I didn't really explain much about what was going on. He didn't seem to want to get involved in anything right now. Either way, I guess I could always be your back up pilot."
Duo laughs, "These aren't some fighter jets. These are Gundams, the most advanced fighting tools ever made. It takes years of training and experience to pilot one of these."
Miko laughs back, "Good thing I was trained for Gundam piloting... When everyone thought Trowa was killed, I was trained as a replacement pilot. That must explain quite a bit."
Heero peeks out again, "I thought it must be something like that. No ordinary person could have built these... Or test piloted them."
Miko just smiles up at him, "No ordinary person could have designed her own Gundam either. I just haven't had the time to build it yet."
Heero hops out and Duo walks over to her, "Well, let's see the designs." (Duo of course) She pulls up the designs on the laptop and smiles as Duo and Heero start to read over the specs and look at the blue prints.
Heero in a rare act compliments her, "It's an impressive design. Flight mode like Wing, heavy fire power like Heavyarms, armored like Sandrock, quick like Deathscythe, and an energy staff weapon like Altron. But what is this weapon?"
Miko gets up and walks over to a wall and picks up a much smaller all metal version of the weapon, swings it aroud in a skillful fashion and stops with the blade at Heero's throat, "It's called a naginata."
Duo looks surprised, "You've actually trained with it? What else do you know?"
She just smiles and shrugs, "A few different types of martial arts... How to use most bladed weapons..." She moves the blade from Heero's throat. "I'm gonna try to get in contact with Quatre to see how close he is to getting his stuff done."
With that, she leaves the work area and walks upstairs, out of hanger and into the kitchen to clean up from breakfast.
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A/N: I Hope this is easier to read now. Thank you to My reviewers! The next one won't be out until probably Monday Night, or Tuesday during the day. Until then, Ciao!
