Griffon saw the Gundam and growled under his breath.
"Filthy Gundam Pilot! How dare you attack our base?!"
The Gundam stopped suddenly, and a boy jumped down.
"What I'm doing is no worse than what you've done," he said defiantly. "I am only fixing the problem."
Griffon pulled a gun and aimed it at Quatre. "The only problems were you and your fellow Pilots," he growled.
Quatre started to back away.
And Griffon prepared to pull the trigger.
BLAM!
Quatre and Griffon stared at each other for three endless seconds as Quatre realized what he'd done.
Then Griffon fell. His gun clattered to the floor.
The roar of the fire filled the silence, and Quatre looked up.
Crow stood there, silhouetted against the fire, the fire's glow making her seem like the goddess of hell.
"Mireka," Quatre breathed.
"I couldn't let him shoot you," she whispered. "Besides. I hated his guts."
"Mireka...why?"
"Because, Quatre," she said. "Because I've grown to like you. And it would be a pity to see you perish."
"The real reason."
She looked surprised, then defeated. "That is the real reason. Other than one other fact."
Quatre sucked in a sharp breath. "And...that is?"
Mireka stepped forward, placed her hands around him and held the back of his head. "Because, my kind Quatre...I think I may be...."
She pulled him down slowly and cool lips touched his warm ones, the kiss meaning to be sweet and slow. But it grew into something else entirely. Rough, and stormy, just like the fire that was ablaze behind them.
His hands moved and slid to her back, pulling her in closer, savoring her, and her neck craned to try to match his kiss.
"Uh, hello?" Duo ran past, trying to catch their attention. "Destroy now, kiss later? The philosophy works, ya know."
Mireka parted away from Quatre, panting. "No time. Destroy the base. And please take care."
"Hey! That's the enemy!" Duo pulled a gun, but she kicked it out of his hand.
"Quatre," Duo whined. "Are you going traitor or something?"
"He's not the one going traitor," Mireka explained.
Quatre boarded Sandrock and gripped at his blades tightly.
***
Trowa punched in the code, and the cells were opened. The prisoners from the villages rushed out, sweating and crying, though they seemed a lot calmer than Gyres' troops had been.
"We must hurry outside," Wufei said, looking around. He felt something. Something..."Hurry, for the dawn of the Crow is no longer."
"What is he mumbling about?" Duo asked as they raced out.
***
Heero watched as the girl ran across the landing strip. He coughed, turned to Relena and said, "Relena, stay here. I have to finish something."
"Heero!" she protested, but he was off.
Heero grabbed the gun and swerved in front of her.
"Heero Yuy," she said. "So we meet again."
"I don't think we've been properly introduced," Heero said slowly, that death glare gleaming in his eyes again. "You whipping my butt and destroying ZERO does not make a good first impression."
"ZERO? Is that what you call your Gundam?"
He didn't answer, just cocked the gun.
Panic invaded her eyes, but the look of determination was stronger. "If you shoot me, you'd be making a very large mistake."
"You're not in a position to tell me what my mistakes are."
Suddenly, the way the fire reflected off of her pulled at his mind.
Those eyes, that hair...that face. All of it seemed so strangely familiar to him...
"Please don't kill," she said. "Please stop."
Heero's left arm trembled as he held the gun. No, no, it couldn't be...
She looked faintly like Lindy.
Heero fell to his knees, bowed his head, and dropped the gun. "Lindy," he whispered.
Crow clutched her chest. "What are you...what did you say?"
A pain racked through her heart just at that moment. Why was she...feeling his pain? Why was she...experiencing it?
"Lindy," Heero mumbled. He couldn't kill Lindy, not again...
"Lindy," she said suddenly. "Lindy...did you say Lindy?"
A blast of anger flamed inside of Heero's chest, and the crackle of the fire burned with it. He looked up at her, hot and blazing. "You don't know her. You don't."
"Lindy Meyers. Sweet, eight years old..."
"No, no, stop..." Heero started to shake his head. "No, stop lying!"
"She had light brown hair. And...and the most adorable, light brown eyes..."
The crackle of the fire met with Heero's anger, outraged and potent. His head shook from side to side, his eyes gleamed with such a ferocity that it spiked Mireka to the very bone.
"She was my sister." She was crying now, and revenge flickered in stone-cobble gray.
Grabbing the gun, Heero threw it at her in a rage. She caught it. "Kill me!" he screamed at her. "Kill me! Do it! Avenge Lindy's death!"
"I..." Mireka looked at the gun, then at Heero. I can't. It would be so much like Sage if I did that...and I don't want to be a part of them any longer.
A cold laugh rang from behind Mireka. She turned, saw Gyres with has arms folded across his chest.
"Good girl, my Crow," he crooned. He stared with hatred at Heero Yuy. "So. I didn't realize you were such a strong soldier, Heero Yuy. Giving up valiantly in the hands of my top soldier."
"Go call Griffon then," Crow suddenly said. "Because I am no longer your soldier."
Gyres' eyes narrowed. "Come now, Crow. Don't be daft. Shoot the man."
"I am no longer under your command, Colonel Gyres," she whispered.
Gyres, so like a father to her. Gyres, so understanding of her when Griffon underestimated her.
Her tear-stained face lifted to meet his, and Gyres put a hand on her shoulder. "Why are you doing this, Crow? You had always been so obedient. If you repent now, I won't be hard on you. Sage will--"
"Open your eyes. Sage is burning to the ground."
BLAM!
Gyres flew back, shocked, stunned at what she had done. He fell to one knee, then the other, blood trickling from a hole in his mid-section.
"Crow," he gasped, placing a hand in front of him so as not to topple over. "Crow...you...choose this...opposing side...over me?"
Tears blurred her eyes again, and she nodded silently.
"What would your...father...Shriu Anork...say, my darling?"
She pointed the gun to him once more, her hand wavering but her heart holding poise. "My father is dead."
BLAMBLAMBLAM!
And Richard Gyres fell.
***
Boom! Ba-BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOMMMM!!
The west wing shuddered under Quatre's blades. If it didn't explode one more time...
BA-BLAAAAAAMMMMM!!!
Relena had been right. So it hadn't been a mistake sending her...
Quatre walked away, watching from his screen as the rest of the base crumbled to the floor.
CREEEUUNNKKK-BABOOOOOMMMMM-BOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
Sage was now dead.
"Rest in peace," Quatre whispered.
"Quatre!"
He looked down, saw a certain shade of brown.
"Mireka."
He hopped down from his Gundam as Mireka ran towards him. She had been crying. She stopped about five feet away form him, her fists clenched to her sides.
"Quatre, this feeling," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know..."
"Don't be scared of it," he said. "You're...not exactly alone."
Duo, Trowa, Wufei, Relena, and then, finally, Heero, all circled them.
"Hey," Duo muttered playfully. "How come Quatre gets a girlfriend and I don't?"
"So. Is this the end?" Trowa asked, looking back at the base. There was hardly anything left of the base but its foundation.
"It just may be," Relena said, smiling.
"I seem to have a brief memory of a soldier kissing me," Heero mused as he stared at her.
She blushed, smiled shyly. People wandered around Sandrock and the Pilots, dazed, but seeming to get the basic idea that they had been captured and that it was now over.
But Quatre and Mireka were left alone. The people around them had disappeared, and they were sucked into a world they didn't recognize.
She took a step towards him, and he to her, and he took her in his arms and stared down contently at her.
"What do you think?" she asked him. "Is it over? Is there a future for these people?"
"Hopefully," he said, smiling in his eyes, "there will be. And...as for us?"
"Is there really an us, Quatre?"
"If you want there to be. What does your future hold?"
She smiled a brilliant smile, pressed his forehead against hers affectionately, and said, "Oh, a number of things. Getting married, living in a house with a garden. Watching my children grow. And best of all..."
Quatre gazed tenderly into her eyes.
"And best of all...you."
***
The crow sailed desolately, high in the sky. Suddenly, it dove, landed on the body, and stood there, on the body's mid-section, unmoving for a few seconds.
Then, it leaped into the air, off of Gyres' body, caught the drift, and let out one final, shrieking call.
"Caaaaaawwww!!"
