Chapter 12

Silence filled the entire hangar as several minutes passed. Nothing happened with the Tallgeese System. A few disappointed mechanics wandered away from the crowd. The rest stayed behind with the small hope that the reaction was only being delayed. It was only Wufei that crossed his arms and snorted in an arrogant manner.

"So this is the brilliant Tallgeese System that all of us have been waiting to see? As far as I can see, Cassandra, nothing has happened. I knew you were either all talk or you were lying. It seems that I was right."

"I don't know why…she's not wanting to…speak." Cassandra whispered feebly. Zechs was ready to take over for her.

"I don't know what your problem is so suddenly, Chang, but you had better back the hell off before I turn it into an order. You know what happens when you disobey orders."

A sour look crossed the Chinese man's face as his body became rigid and he dropped his arms. "Threaten me all you like. I speak the truth. We rested all of our hopes on this woman's breakthrough technology only to be disappointed. How are we going to fight Anubis now that we have only the Gundams? I'm going to find a way, make no mistake about that."

As he turned to leave, a loud cry of pain escaped him as he grabbed his head. Looking down, he'd turned around just in time to see a wrench fall to the ground. An angry Katarina stood fuming behind him, her eyes burning with either rage or angry tears; he couldn't tell.

"You don't have any right to jump on Cassie's system!" she shouted, Duo moving to try and stop her. She ignored him and pushed his hand to the side. "Who are you to judge something so new that it hasn't even been tested properly?!"

"You'd do best to watch your tongue, onna. You're not a part of this battle, so keep out of it." Wufei snarled, turning his eyes to Duo. "Keep your bitch under control, Maxwell. I'm tired of having to deal with her disrespectful mouth."

Katarina's expression turned livid as she clenched her jaw. "If you don't shut the hell up, Wufei, you'll have more than just my mouth to mess with!" she shouted, her face flushed.

"Do what you like." Wufei said nonchalantly. "You're no concern of mine."

Duo caught Kat as she tried to launch herself forward to make an attack on the other Gundam pilot. The blonde struggled against his arms as she was slowly dragged back into Howard's office. The brunette locked the door and listened to her scream in rage as she paced the room. Sighing as he went to lean on the desk, Duo rubbed his hand across his face in a tired manner. Wufei was turning out to be more of a problem on this mission than the actual reconstruction of the Gundams was. It turned out that Deathscythe Hell was almost finished as well as Sandrock and Heavyarms Custom. The Altron and the Wing Zero were not far behind. Many of the Preventer mechanics were wondering where the parts and wiring for their own mechs were disappearing to. That could only be explained by Heero.

Katarina had finally stopped pacing and was fighting to regain control of her breath. She was so beautiful when she was angry. "I just don't understand why he has to be such a jerk!"

"You clearly don't know Wufei." Duo commented in an expert manner. "I'm not one to boast, but he's pretty pig-headed when he chooses his personal battles. It won't be easy for you to get along with him now, Kat. You've publicly made him your enemy."

"Good!" the blonde shouted. "I'm the leader of this damn project and by God he will take orders from me, or I'll strip his Gundam down while he's sleeping! It'll be a skeleton when I'm through with it. I've never done a whole job in one night, but I'm sure I could."

Duo chuckled. "I figured you'd have something else to say about that. Don't worry about Wufei. I'm sure that Sally's going to put him in his place shortly. Wufei's not one to cross her so quickly."

Katarina came to rest against the brunette who was still leaning against the desk. "I really wanted to make him spit out teeth though, Duo. I could've done it too. I have another wrench in my pocket."

...

Making his way down the corridor while rubbing the rather nasty bump on the back of his head and cursing in Chinese, Wufei felt that despite the confrontation with Katarina, he'd effectively humiliated Cassandra. He knew, of course, that the repercussions of his actions would be dire, but it was well worth it. None of them knew what a monster that woman was. They were focused on how she could be able to help them defeat the enemy at hand. Not that he blamed them.

Anubis and the Orion Project had to be defeated. There was no mistake about that. The universe was in danger. He could understand where the Preventers would want to take any measure possible to eliminate any and all threats to the Earth Sphere and the colonies, but bring that woman into the project was not one of the feasible measures in his opinion. Wufei sighed as he finally paused at the door outside of his quarters. He'd get back to work on the Altron later.

"Wufei."

As he turned to look at the owner of the voice that was calling him, the Chinese man was hit in the face hard by a small hand before being dragged through the door. Only after the door had been closed and locked did he get a good look at his assailant. Sally was fuming as she stood bristled before him. His onyx eyes stared her down with the ferocity of a jungle cat.

"How dare you hit me, onna! You've committed a great injustice!"

If it was possible, Sally's expression grew darker before she replied. "Don't you dare take that tone of voice with me, Wufei Chang. I've dealt with this childishness for long enough. I don't know what's going on between you and Cassandra, but I suggest that you drop it and drop it now or else we're going to have a problem."

The pilot of the Altron Gundam looked at her in disbelief. "I can't believe what you're saying, Sally! I'm not the one to blame in all of this! She failed in her objective and now it's up to us to find out an alternative. The Orion Project has to be stopped."

"How are you not to blame, Wufei?" the Preventer shouted. "You talked to the leader of the Gundam reconstruction plan, your commanding officer, like a dog off the streets! You talked down to her in front of her crew! Zechs even tried to bring you down a peg or two, but you just don't give a damn, do you? You're too proud for your own good!"

"My pride has nothing to do with this—"

"Your pride has everything to do with this, Wufei! Don't you understand that maybe you and Cassandra need to accept that you both made mistakes in the past so you can move past whatever this feud may be and try to work together? Of course you don't! You're too proud to think of it that way! I don't understand you sometimes, Wufei. I really don't."

Without another word, Sally was gone and he was alone. Wufei suddenly got the sense that he'd hurt her in some way deep down that he couldn't see or explain or even begin to comprehend. Why did everyone see him as the villain? He was just trying to do his duty to the best of his ability, was he not? This was a very important mission that had been given to him and the others that had to be carried out with the greatest of care and speed or else they would fail. Couldn't they see that Cassandra was in the way of that?

...

Quatre watched as the crowd dissipated and his sister was led away by Duo before she killed Wufei. Shooting one last glance at Cassandra and Zechs, he began making his way back over to his partially complete Gundam. As he began moving away, he stopped, getting the distinct impression that someone was standing behind him, watching him. The blonde turned to find Trowa in the midst of following him. A small smile graced his lips.

"I was just going to get some more work done on Sandrock. Would you care to join me, Trowa?" Quatre asked, politely as ever.

Receiving a curt nod as his answer, the only son of the Winner line moved forward with the silent brunette to both of their Gundams. Quatre rode the line up to the catwalk and began on the work to some of the cockpit wiring. The blue glow of the lights flickered out as he put several of the new wires into the panel. After several minutes with no luck, he huffed and crossed his arms in a childish manner.

"You've shorted the fuse." Trowa said from outside the cockpit. "I can help you fix it if you want."

Quatre gave a relieved grin. "I'd appreciate that very much. Thank you."

Without a word, Trowa crawled into the confined space next to him and began his work on the control panel. A light blush crept onto Quatre's cheeks as the brunette's body kept brushing against his. In no time at all, Trowa turned to look at him, unfazed by their close proximity.

"You're problem is fixed, Quatre."

"T-thank you, Trowa. I appreciate it very much."

...

End Chapter