*I know the pilots are a bit out of character. Hey, it's been a year or so since we last saw them. We knew they were going to change after the war was over. Ano… the five scientists are dead. They won't be suddenly reappearing. Treize Khushrenada… I don't know yet. Any questions? Comments? Criticisms? Anything?
Operation Omega Shadow:
Part Four
By Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)
Punch. Kick. Roundhouse. Uppercut.
Tyler finished her cycle only to start back at the beginning.
Kick. Punch. Sweep.
Someone else might take notice that the punching bag was on its last legs. It was about to fall apart after the abuse it had taken. Tyler didn't care. Sweat covered every inch of her skin, making her clothes cling, but she continued relentlessly.
Punch. Punch. Kick.
"I'm no expert, but I don't think that bag can hold up to too much more of that." Tyler spared Howard a glance, then returned her concentration to the routine.
"Is there… something you want?"
"Just thought maybe you'd like to talk."
"Why is that… everyone wants to… talk?"
"Those pilots just want to help because they understand what you're going through."
"I never… asked for, nor do I… want help. As for what I'm… going through, I don't think they… do understand."
"How can you be so sure? Those boys have been through quite a bit."
"I know… everything about them. They don't… understand." Tyler's last kick sent the bottom half of the bag flying across the room, covering the floor with sand. "They want to change me. I have no desire to change who I am." She turned to look at him. "Is there anything else?"
"M said to tell you that he wants you to show the boys the experimental weapons lab."
"Kay and Terra's lab. Can't someone else do it?"
"Is that hesitation I hear?" Howard asked as she strode past him.
"Never. I don't feel like being killed in a freak explosion today."
"Those are orders."
"Hn. Ryoukai." Tyler left the room and strode down the hallway for a while before leaning against the wall. "I fear nothing, but please don't let them be blowing something else up today. I don't need another concussion right now."
–
"Fire in the hole!" The cry echoed down the corridor as Tyler led the other five Gundam pilots to the weapons lab. Tyler found herself suppressing the urge to beat her forehead with a fist as the boys all dove to the floor. An explosion sounded not more than five seconds after the warning, and something came flying down the corridor. Tyler stepped to one side, then continued walking when the unidentifiable flying object had passed.
"That was great!" exclaimed one of the female technicians—Indian, tall, petite, with black hair falling to just past her shoulders—as Tyler stepped into the room.
"Did you see that thing go?" the other asked. She had curly brown hair caught up in a braid and hazel eyes. Both women were extremely pretty, but at least five years older than Tyler. Both Terra and Kay started talking at once as they spotted her. Tyler made no attempt to follow either, and had to force her hands to uncurl from fists as the five boys cautiously followed her into the room.
"What was that flying through the corridor?" she asked when the exclamations had died somewhat. "How fast was it going, and is it in danger of going through the bulkheads?"
"A file cabinet," Terra began.
"It got up to forty-eight kph in half a meter," Kay continued. They looked at each other.
"It shouldn't go through the bulkheads," Terra finished.
"I pray it doesn't brain anyone before it finally stops," Tyler muttered.
"Tyler, so good to see you!" Kay suddenly exclaimed.
"You hardly come to visit anymore," Terra said. "I know we hit you with that sandbag a few months ago, but you weren't supposed to walk in at just that point."
"It's not our fault you got a concussion. Okay, it was sorta our fault, but that's no reason to stop visiting us."
"We came up with a couple new outfits while you were not visiting us," Terra commented, changing the subject. "Uh, we do need you to try them on, of course."
"No time like the present," Kay piped up. "C'mon, Tyler."
"Kay, Terra, I'm supposed to introduce you to the Gundam pilots from the colonies now." Tyler gestured to the young men behind her.
"They're here?" Kay asked.
"They spend days at a time locked in here," Tyler explained to the other pilots. "They like to blow things up."
"Cool," Duo commented.
"They're cute," Terra said as she and Kay studied them. "Tyler, you didn't tell us they were this cute. Introduce us."
"These two are Terra and Kay, our weapons specialists. As I said, they like to blow things up."
"Your names?" Kay asked sweetly.
"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner," Quatre introduced himself.
"My name's Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie."
"Heero Yuy."
"Trowa Barton."
"Chang Wufei."
"They're cute, and they have interesting names." Kay grinned. "Oh, this is gonna be fun. Tyler, you're not getting out of trying on the outfits, though."
"Let's go, Tyler," Terra said, grabbing one of her arms. "We can get the pilots' opinions too."
Kay latched onto Heero's arm and dragged him along. "You guys have to come." She beckoned to the other pilots, who followed. "We always need the opinions of some young men."
Tyler suppressed a sigh and glared at Terra. "Omae o korosu."
–
Tyler paid Mark no mind as she went at the punching bag. He watched her for a few minutes, not saying anything. "You know, we just had to change that because you busted the old one. I think it would be greatly appreciated if you didn't bust this one up on the same day."
"Hn."
"Are you okay?"
"I am performing at optimum levels."
"That's not what I meant."
"You know that I don't have an answer for what you meant." They were silent for a few more minutes.
"Heard you had to go see Kay and Terra today."
"Hai."
"Were they blowing anything up?"
"Aren't they always? Were there any reports of hull breeches or personnel being brained by a flying object?"
"No… What did they use this time?"
"File cabinet. Forty-eight kph in half a meter."
"And nobody's dead? It must be a miracle."
"Hn."
"Did they have new outfits for you to try on this time?"
Tyler finally let a sigh escape. "Don't they always? The other pilots were with me. Kay and Terra were going to make them watch. Ducked out by saying I had to train, so that's what I'm doing."
"Looks to me like your beating up on the poor punching bag when it didn't do anything to you." Mark grinned as Tyler glared at him.
"Why is everyone suddenly trying to get a rise out of me?"
"Because those five pilots already have, and it's renewed our hopes that you might be human under there somewhere." Tyler opened her mouth to reply, but finding nothing to say, closed it again and turned back to the punching bag. "Did I hit on something, Shadow?"
"Shut up, Mark."
"You are human under that perfect soldier."
"I said shut up." She swung at him, not as hard as she would have had he been an enemy, but hard enough to hurt. He ducked and rushed her. Within minutes they were trading blows in a mock fight. Mark had worked with her on some of her early training, and even though he wasn't quite a match for her, he could hold his own.
After the fight had progressed for a while, Tyler set herself for Mark's next rush. Once he rushed her, she flipped him over her shoulder, twisting to land on top of him. Using her weight and a little leverage, she pinned him to the floor.
"Now what are you going to say?" she asked.
"Tyler, I'm tellin' it like it is. Now, when you were seven, you said I was your friend. Has that changed?"
"Iie. I guess I still consider you a friend." She let him up and sat down on the floor next to him. "Things are just… different now. I have to be this perfect soldier, and fight to protect all of humanity. I'm realizing at seventeen that I never had a chance to be a kid."
"Hey, this whole thing has been tough on all of us, but especially on you. You have no idea what it was like to watch you for the past decade, and see you become a little less human each day. A lot of us felt sorry for you, but we were also glad it wasn't us."
"I don't need pity," Tyler snarled.
"No pity. We feel because we care. We're family here, Tyler."
"I just… I can't deal with this. I don't know how to."
"You need to talk with Sensei M. In fact, he wanted to see you about twenty minutes ago."
Tyler looked at him, and the ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Baka."
"Maybe so, but it makes life a little less boring. Go see him."
"Right."
–
"You wanted to see me?" Tyler asked as she entered Sensei M's quarters. She stood at stiff attention. Sensei M sighed a bit to see it. He had never completely agreed with the idea of creating perfect soldiers. It was one of the things he had vehemently disagreed with his colleagues on. In the end, though, he had given in to necessity.
"Yes," he answered. "At ease, Shadow." Tyler relaxed her stance marginally. "I've noticed that you've become much more… open emotionally since the arrival of the other five pilots." A muscle in her jaw started working, and he could follow her thought to its conclusion: reconditioning.
"Sensei—"
"No reconditioning, Tyler."
"Sir?" Confusion, surprise—that was good.
"No reconditioning. I've never made it a secret that there were some things I disagreed with my colleagues on. The creation of perfect soldiers from children was one of them. In the end, I gave in to the necessity of it, but even now I doubt the wisdom in that, especially when I see what it did to you.
"You were the first, Tyler. Your training was the basis for that of the other pilots. You are the original Gundam pilot. You were training for war at an age when no child should ever have to understand war. I feel that I must apologize to you for that."
"Apologize to me?"
"I had no intention for you to lose your humanity out here. How can you fight a war to save humanity while losing the very thing that makes you human? It seems incongruous. But it is what happened, and now I have to correct my oversight.
"Over the past fifteen years, I have come to regard you as an adoptive daughter. The people on this station consider themselves a family, and like it or not, you are part of that family. Now the other Gundam pilots have become a part of that family, and they have started to drag emotions deeply buried out of you. I knew this would happen, and frankly, I'm glad to see it."
"Sir?"
"I have new orders for you. You must complete this mission that we set out upon, but I want you to learn what it is to be human again. At the end of this war, you will rejoin the human race. Those are orders, Shadow."
Tyler was silent a moment, digesting this new loop. Finally, she met his gaze. "Ninmu ryoukai."
"That's my Shadow. Dismissed. Find the pilots; have some fun. I've been on the receiving end of your tongue enough to know that there's a brutal sense of humor in there somewhere. You could give Maxwell a run for his money."
Tyler's lips quirked in a slight smile. "That's a mission I will take great pleasure in."
–
"Get up, Maxwell." Duo groaned and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head.
"Too early. Don' wanna." If the blanket hadn't been blocking his vision, he might have seen the blue eyes flash with determination before his mattress was upended, dumping him to the floor. "What the…?" He glared angrily at Tyler, who was standing over him.
"I said get up."
"You didn't have to do that. What the hell is your MO?"
"Your Gundam is nearly finished. I thought you might want to help with the finishing touches. Lady Une and Relena are also leaving in two hours. Sensei wants the Gundams to escort their shuttle to the asteroid belt, as a test run. We'll be running a training exercise in the belt after they're on their way."
Duo shot to his feet. "The Gundams are almost done?! Why didn't you say so in the first place?" He dashed around the room in search of clothes, then stopped and glanced at her. "Ano, do you mind? Some privacy, please."
"Construction bay, ten minutes." Tyler turned on her heel and strode out. Exactly nine minutes and fifty-five seconds later, Duo dashed into the construction bay and made a beeline for the new Deathscythe Hell. Tyler, sitting on the open hatch of the Tallgeese III, looked at her watch and sighed. "I knew he'd take me literally on that," she muttered.
"Is he getting on your nerves, dear cousin?" Zechs asked from pilot's chair.
"Are you implying that he is an irritation to me?"
"I'm saying that he's annoying you."
Tyler glared at him. "I don't get annoyed." Her jaw clenched, and she looked away. "At least I didn't until all of you came along. What is wrong with me as I am that you all have to attempt to change me?"
"Well…"
"I only ask a straight answer from you, Milliardo. As my cousin, I only ask of you the truth."
"Because we've seen the end to the path you walk, and because we care about you, dare I say love you, we don't want to see you reach the end of what is a self-destructive path." He held up a hand to stop any replies she might have made. "I know, you have to do all you can to save the people of Earth and the Colonies. We've been down that road. It's just that we don't want to lose you or anyone for some people we don't know unless we're damn sure we did everything we could to prevent it. That is the only way we'd accept your death. First, of course, you have to care about your own life, which you don't. To care about one's own life is human, and we are going to do our damnedest to make you see that you are human."
"What he said," Heero said with a slight smirk as he appeared on Tallgeese's shoulder. "You can't hide forever, Tyler."
Tyler's gaze darted between the two of them. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black," she muttered as she jumped to the floor. Standing at Sandrock's feet, she looked up at Quatre. "I'm going to go run a systems check on Shadow. Call me when you're all ready."
"Roger," Quatre acknowledged.
Leaving the construction bay, she stalked down the corridors. When she heard someone call her name, she turned to see Relena hurrying to catch up with her. Relena smiled and matched her pace.
"I was hoping to catch you before Lady Une and I had to leave," she said.
"Please, Relena, I don't need it from you too."
Relena laughed. "I shan't, since I'm the one who started it with Heero to begin with. The entire station crew should be enough for you. More than enough, once the Maganac arrive. Actually I just wanted to inform you that you had better come back alive."
"Nani?"
"Like it or not, you are one of the last living Peacecrafts. While we aren't reclaiming the lost Sanc Kingdom, we still have important roles in society. People look up to us, and they will be watching you. You may not follow the beliefs of our family, but they are still within you. You have a duty to pass on those beliefs."
Tyler stopped walking and closed her eyes. "Don't make me promise, Relena. I can't." Tentatively, she met her cousin's gaze. "But I will try. That is all I can offer."
"Then that is all I ask." On an impulse, Relena threw her arms around her cousin. "Stay well, Tyler. My prayers and those of every person on Earth and the Colonies are with you. Show those aliens what happens when you mess with the human race." Releasing Tyler, she turned on her heel and walked away.
Tyler stared after her for a moment. "Everyone on this station has gone stark raving mad."
"Including yourself?" asked a voice from the shadows.
"My mental state of health is just fine."
"If you are behaving normally, then I would assume everyone else is as well. If everyone has gone mad, reason would state that you have too. If your mental health is unaffected, it would stand to reason that nearly everyone else on this station is sane. I suppose you are saying that you have not been behaving abnormally?"
"Damn you," Tyler muttered.
"Language, dear Shadow."
"I don't know why I saved your life. I should have left you adrift in space right where I found you."
"But you didn't, and here I am, and I am eternally grateful to you for that. You do know, with the Gundam pilots staying here, it will be hard to keep them from learning of my presence."
"I guess that means we'll just have to tell them, then." Tyler turned to look at the man in the shadows. "I'll let you know, Treize. I just need a little more time to gain their complete trust. Then I can let you come back to life."
"I await your approval. I only pray that I don't regain my life only to lose it again."
"Believe me, Treize, I hope so too."
End Part Four
Okay, I did it. I didn't really plan it. I mean, the idea was there, but I wasn't really intending to bring Treize back until he just appeared there. Oh well. Thanks to Terra and Kay (you guys know who you are) for the use of their characters. I'll attempt to return them in one piece. As always, comments are welcome.