Perfect Warrior

Chapter 9: Battle with Zero

Days passed and much to the boys' dismay the war only got worse. Peace was short lived and once again battles broke out in space as well as on Earth. The Gundam Pilots have decided to go back to go back into space, in order to fight Zechs and the White Fang.

The boys boarded the Peacemillion shuttle, which would take them to the stage of the final battle, along with the five updated Gundams as the suits were loaded, securely.

As Trowa followed the others through the door of Peacemillion, he turned around as the bright sun rose, ever so slowly, higher and higher into the warm morning sky. Unknowingly, two small sparkles fell from his eyes. He wanted so much to show Leah this beauty of the Earth, instead of the battles and deaths of war, which she was used to. Closing his eyes, Trowa whispered to wind, hoping that somehow Leah would be able to hear him. "Please survive this war, and come back so I can show you the beauty you have missed."

Trowa opened his eyes and was about to enter the shuttle when he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye. A dark figure jumped into the Wing Gundam Zero and started it up. Knowing it was Heero, Trowa made his way over to him, having a vague idea what he was doing, but still asked.

"What are you doing?" This made the perfect soldier turn his head toward him.

Heero, who was just about ready to take off, looked down to see Trowa staring up at him.

"My battle with Zechs will have to wait. I'm going to find her. When this war is over, she will not have to kill again."

Both of the soldiers could see in their eyes that their minds were focused on only one girl.

"Let me come with you." Trowa said, his eyes showing revenge, but Heero just shook his head slowly.

"No, I have to go alone. Don't worry, I promise she will be safe."

"I trust you, Heero."

With those words, Heero transformed his Gundam and took off flying. Trowa walked back to the entrance of the shuttle again and just as the door was closing; Trowa could see the Wing Zero disappear over the horizon.

~~~

"How's she doing?" said a spine-chilling voice out of the darkness.

"She's going to be fine. I think she waking." Said another.

Leah could barely hear the voices around her, due to the loud roar of a plane engine. She could only guess that she was on the plane, for the noise to be so close. Straining to open her eyes, Leah realized she was securely strapped to a large metal chair. Cool metal clasped tightly to her wrists on either side of the chair, and her ankles were immobile on the floor. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, crimson eyes glared as she saw two familiar figures standing over her.

Leah began to struggle to try and get out of her bidings but she was too tired and weakened to even move, much less to give a lot of strength. Just then, she heard one of them speak, "Prepare our little warrior for the battle. I will send the message." Leaving footsteps told Leah that one of the men was leaving the room. Suddenly, she felt the other man place a helmet over her head, blinding her vision. She felt her hair was still down, half of it tossed over one slim pale shoulder. With the helmet cutting off her senses, Leah's mind became frantic at trying to escape quickly. Just then, a sudden breeze brushed past her, but it wasn't cold. It was warm and gentle, just as if the morning sun was shining on her body, warming every inch her. In that instant Leah could sworn she had heard Trowa's voice. Just then, a small tear fell down her cheek. "I never told Trowa how I feel."

In another instant, before Leah could let another tear fall for Trowa or her brother, bright light flashed quickly in front of her, and her crimson ruby eyes, which always had shown her emotion, had now turned dull and lifeless. She was finally the perfect warrior, totally submissive, obeying any order without hesitation.

~~~

While onboard the Peacemillion, each pilot was in his own room thinking of what this final battle with Zechs and the White Fang would bring, would that bring the world peace. Although one was thinking about anything but battles.

Just then, Howard's voice came over the intercom, "All you Gundam Pilots come to the bridge, there's a message here for you guys that might be interesting."

Trowa was the last one to step onto the bridge, his eyes downcast. When the door opened, he looked up to see the other three pilots waiting in the large open area, with Howard, the old man clad in a brightly colored and loud Hawaiian shirt, standing by the command consul. Everyone looked up to see Trowa enter. Then, Duo, as impatient as he was getting, broke the silence.

"Hey Trowa, where's Heero? Now we're just waiting for him, the slowpoke."

Trowa looked at them all, trying to keep his voice impassive as he spoke. "Heero is not here at all. He took Wing Zero to search for Leah."

Everyone was in shock that the normal stoic soldier could even show such care for anyone except maybe Relena.

"Why would he care so much for that woman?" Wufei asked, as he leaned against a far wall.

Trowa turned his gaze to the Chinese boy then, through dark green orbs. "Because...she is his twin sister...his own flesh and blood."

"What?!" Everyone was even more shocked than before. Heero has a twin?!

Just then, Howard coughed, clearing his throat, making the others look at him. He pressed a switch, suddenly Treize appeared on the visual screen, and they heard his voice over the speaker.

"Welcome to outer space Gundam Pilots. Please allow me to witness one last battle with all of you. Meet me at these coordinates. Thank you, I look forward to seeing you."

The pilots were completely bewildered by the sudden message.

"Now if that's not a trap waiting to happen, I don't know what it is!" Duo blurted out, staring agape at where Treize was.

"I agree Duo, why would Treize want to battle with us anyway." Pondered Quatre, with his hand under his chin.

Just then, Wufei moved from his frozen spot on the wall and toward the door.

"Wufei, where are you going?" Trowa asked as they passed each other.

"Out, to continue my own battle with Treize."

"But Wufei, if it is a trap you could be walking right into it. It's too risky." Said Quatre, who had overheard him leaving.

"I don't care." With that, Wufei left for the hanger.

Meanwhile, growing increasingly impatient, Duo began to run after him, calling back to the others. "Come on you two, the guy is going to get back up whether he likes it or not!"

Wufei was just about ready to blast off, when he heard other mobile suits powering up. He turned around to see Deathscythe, Heavyarms, and Sandrock ready to go as well.

"Stubborn bakas[1]," He muttered under his breath, "but they are brave."

Then, the four Gundams took off to meet OZ, hopefully for the last time.

~~~

Back on Earth, Wing Zero hid stealthily beneath the forest of trees, while behind a wall of dense fog clouds. Heero watched as a shuttle began to rise into the sky towards space. Heero's eyes flamed with anger, for he knew it was the same plane that took his sister away from him. His anger only climaxed as images of Leah lying unconscious in their tight grasp flashed through hid mind. Suddenly, something shot through his body, almost as if it were draining him of energy. Whatever that was, he knew Leah was going through the same thing, and it was painful.

Coming out of his thoughts, Heero took off appearing in front of the transport shuttle, and readied his beam rifle. He turned on his communicator and spoke firmly.

"OZ, I warn you now to release the girl and I won't have to use this." As he targeted the rifle.

Just then, a man with slick black hair appeared on his view screen.

"I wouldn't do that, you do know she is here, right?" he smirked.

"Release her to me, then I will fire on you." Growled Heero.

The man chuckled, "Why don't you see her for yourself?"

"What?"

Just then, another figure appeared on Heero's screen. The figure covered by shadows, but Heero could see clearly. It was Leah.

"Sister, come on, I going to take you some place safe."

However, the girl didn't move. It was then that Heero noticed something beneath her long blonde hair. That certain shine in her red eyes was gone. They were dull and faded.

"What did you do to her?" shouted Heero, angrily.

"I just gave her a little new training, and a new way to attack, mercilessly."

Then light filled the shadows around Leah, to show she was inside the cockpit of a mobile suit. The camera pulled back to show she was inside the supposedly very powerful and deadly Wing Angel. Suddenly Leah disappeared from Heero's screen, but then reappeared outside the transport shuttle across from Heero.

"Pilot 01, follow me. I will lead you to your death along with the other Gundam pilots." She said in a monotone voice.

Heero wanted so much to save Leah, but he found no other way then this, so he followed the Wing Angel assassin to space. He knew Leah would do the same thing under such conditions.

"I'm sorry Trowa. Leah, omae o kuroso[2]."

~~~

The four other pilots waited patiently in space where the coordinates had indicated they would have their battle. Wufei sat in his 'Nataku' arms crossed and silently planning what his next move would be in this battle. Quatre turned away from staring at the beautiful close range view of the Earth when he noticed Trowa was staring out into the darkness of space, as if he wasn't even aware the others were even there. Duo on the other hand was tapping his foot impatiently against the cockpit of his Deathscythe, eyes closed and arms crossed.

While trying to keep the moral of the group at a stable level, Quatre noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something was flying towards them at a very high speed. It was coming from the Earth through the atmosphere. Only the Wing Zero could pass through the heat of the invisible layer. Quatre continued to watch as the object got bigger, believing it to really be Wing Zero. However, as soon as it had appeared. The object disappeared from his line of vision.

Trowa turned around wondering why Quatre had become so quiet. His eyes widened as he saw a Gundam suddenly appear out of nowhere from behind Quatre, ready to attack.

"Quatre! Behind you!" Trowa shouted.

At this, everyone looked up from their silent states of thought, and leaped into action quickly. Duo and Wufei appeared between the new Gundam and Sandrock, and blocked its beam saber with their attacks.

The four gundams surrounded their attacker. It definitely looked like the Wing Zero, only this one completely white with blue armor covering its legs, arms, chest and head. Before the pilots could move, the blue armor opened and showered the others with hundreds of lasers and bullets.

Trying to get away from the line of fire, they noticed that the bullets had stopped as quickly as they started. They looked up to see that the Wing Zero had slammed sideways into the other gundam. Now, the two faced each other, preparing to fight.

Heero, who had just slammed into the Wing Gundam Angel and knocked Leah a few feet away from the others, turned his head to see they were all right.

"Hey, you okay." Heero shouted nonchalantly to the other pilots.

"Heero, is this the fighter who we are supposed to fight against for Treize?" Duo shouted, as Wufei looked disappointed that he wasn't fighting Treize himself.

"Apparently so," Heero continued, turning his attention back to the Wing Angel, "Now, I want all of you to get out of here and back to Peacemillion. Leave this Gundam to me."

However, nobody moved, then Quatre spoke out.

"First of all Heero, what is this new Gundam? And what importance do you have that you want to fight alone?"

Just then, the Gundam spread its angel wings, pulled out yet another beam saber from the side, and started to slice its way through at Heero's Wing Zero. While trying to hold off Wing Angel's attacks, Heero filled everyone in on what he learned, from the other night to a few hours ago.

"This- new Gundam is called- the Wing Gundam Angel. It is modeled after Wing Zero, but built- to counter all- the Gundams abilities. I- am fighting this battling alone because of who the pilot is."

"And who is the pilot?" Trowa asked, becoming nervous watching the Wing Angel's familiar moves.

Heero growled with the good and painful memories, "The pilot-is-my-sister."

Everyone gasped when the others heard this. The pilot of this Gundam was Leah.

"But Heero, I thought you and Trowa talked to Leah, and she isn't going to kill anymore." Quatre asked remembering the other night the three shared, briefly.

"Ugh! She is fighting because OZ had kidnapped and brainwashed her. Now, her mind is being controlled." Shouted Heero, as Leah's attacks became more aggressive.

"Who is controlling her, Heero?" shouted Trowa, trying to remain as calm as possible, but was showing more and more worry for Leah.

Heero cringed, "OZ is controlling my sister, with- the- zero system."

Everyone was again in shock that OZ was still trying to attempt to recreate the deadly zero system. Just then, as Heero pushed the Wing Angel the other pilots took this initiative to attack all at once.

Meanwhile, inside the Wing Angel, the perfect warrior could hear everything that was said outside. However, the zero system was still in control of her mind, so she could not speak. Just then, a familiar voice reached her ears. This voice sounded worried and sad, but she didn't have any idea who where it was coming from. It was saying something but the zero system pushed it further away so the warrior could concentrate. However, something was screaming in her head and was making her push her fighting aggression even harder to try and get rid of that noise, but it only got louder. Finally, as the Wing Zero was able to push her back, Leah could not take this screaming in her mind. She wanted it to stop that noise and she started to scream at the top of her lungs, trying to relieve any pressure. Just as she looked up through her view screen, she saw all five Gundams ready to launch their attacks all at once at her. Leah knew she could easily dodge but she didn't move, realizing this was the only way to ease this pain.

Outside, Heero somehow knew this was only way to save his sister and he couldn't kill her now, as he readied his buster rifle and watched the others prepare their weapons. He could tell Trowa didn't want to do this either but knew it was the only way, to prove to OZ that they cannot defeat the Gundam pilots.

Now, as they all stood in front of the motionless Wing Angel, unaware of the piercing screams from inside the cockpit, began to fire.

They continued and soon they had knocked off the hatch to the cockpit. They stopped at this and slowly approached. Inside, the young warrior had collapsed from the air pressure and from underneath her helmet, the boys could see blood fall down her pale face and drip onto her light blonde hair. She had pulled herself out of her straps.

With Heavyarm's free arm, Trowa reached and held onto Leah, when she unconsciously floated into the palm of his hand.

"Come on we should get her back to Peacemillion. She can rest there until we can find a hospital." Requested Quatre, to which they all agreed.

"What about the Wing Gundam Angel?" Duo wondered aloud.

"We'll take it with us. I want to learn more about this Gundam." Heero said carrying the, surprisingly still in one piece, Wing Angel.

Duo, Wufei, and Quatre led the way while Heero and Trowa carried Leah and her deadly Wing Angel behind the others going at a slower pace on the way to Peacemillion.

Now, onto the final battle.

TBC

Well that was actually very hard. Action is so hard to write for me. Therefore, that is why it took so long to update.

Notes: [1] Sorry I had heard that term used so many times in other fics I have read and I just had to try it. I believe it means, idiot or fool.

[2] That phrase is Heero's "signature" phrase and according to other authors it means "I'm going to kill you." (Please tell me if any of this info is wrong.)

Preview:

Leah is back with the Gundam pilots. OZ has given up on their warrior. Now, the way is clear for the pilots' battle with the White Fang. First they try and go up to Libra unaware of Libra's main canon at first, however, they are followed by ____. Next time on Perfect Warrior chapter 10: An Angel's Sacrifice.