Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

Warning: This chapter has a few brief references to implied rape/molestation (as usual, no details are given).

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.


Chapter 28: A World Turned Upside-Down and Inside-Out

When Harry finally woke up, he spent an hour testing the wards on the suit with a series of very low powered spells since anything more powerful would overload the base's systems. Once he'd confirmed that there was no danger of his magic frying the systems or causing the wards to overload and explode, he began modifying the cockpit with magic. First he modified the pilot's chair (shrinking it and making it less bulky) in order to create more space so he would have room to install a pair of passenger seats (just in case they had to shuffle passengers for any reason) and have wall space to later add a small bathroom with a shower and a toilet (something he didn't exactly need at the moment).

Next he created the fold out bed that hung above the passenger seats so he could stand on it to better reach the ceiling in order to install a rack that would hold the shrunken mobile suits he would need to transport (which would at least include the Vayeate, Mercurius, and Dogstar). Once that was done, he dropped back down to the floor and created a pair of storage cupboards on the floor behind the pilot's chair to hold any extra weapons or supplies they managed to filch on their way out.

Once that was complete, he began adding the charms and enchantments that would protect both pilot and passengers from serious harm during both flight and battle; which included the cushioning charm being applied to the seats, the bed, and the wall behind the passenger seats and the various spells that protected the pilot from excessive speed and force. He then augmented the life support system and other internal systems next along with adding unbreakable charms to the various screens, monitors, and gauges inside of the cockpit. Adding all of those enchantments took Harry far longer than usual because he had to use the smallest amount of magic possible so that he didn't shut down the base with his spell casting; necessitating the need to cast each spell multiple times in order for them to properly take hold.

Satisfied that he'd done everything he could for the moment inside of the cockpit, Harry climbed into the pilot's seat and fired up the suit's internal computer and hacked into the base's network to start pulling the current schematics of the base (so he could compare it to the blueprints he'd absorbed months earlier) and an updated roster of the soldiers currently on base (so he had a rough idea of how many people he'd potentially need to worry about). He was in the middle of trying to take over the surveillance cameras of the base when he discovered that someone had already hacked into the security system.

Suspecting that it was one of his brothers that was responsible (he had given them his laptop after all), Harry quickly reverse hacked into his laptop using his personal security codes; startling Duo and Wufei who'd not expected to be interrupted as they finished the final touches on the viral program they'd been designing. Harry was more than a little bothered to learn that three was now less than six hours left until Zechs' replacement arrived as he didn't think he could finish prepping everything in such a short amount of time (he still had a few more protective charms to apply to the outer armor of the suit in addition to preparing the other suits for their escape).

Knowing he didn't have much time, Harry asked them to have Heero (who he learned had used another laptop to hack into the security network) loop the camera in the lab (which he'd already been doing) so that Harry could get started. He was given confirmation of the cameras already being disabled two minutes later and he wasted no time in shutting down the system and climbing out. His first task was to apply the last of the two most important protective charms to Wing Zero; strengthening and reinforcing the armor and protecting it from extreme temperatures as he replaced the last few pieces of armor on the suit.

He'd worry about the stealth spells and applying the defensive wards to prevent any one but him or his family from messing with the suit another time as they'd take far too long to integrate into the system at the moment (plus there was still a chance he'd be required to destroy the suit later on and he'd rather not have to fight his own ward). He thought about incorporating a few of the weapons from Dogstar (if only because he was more familiar with them) but decided against it because they were tailor made for the converted Taurus suit not the heavier Gundam. He did, however, create a series of hidden foot and handholds up the left leg of the suit to make accessing the cockpit easier.

Once he was finished with that, he dug out Dogstar and returned the damaged suit to full size so he could raid the suit's storage cupboards for anything he might need; including extra spacesuits for the scientists, Zayeed, and his brothers. That took him far longer than he had hoped and he was starting to get nervous but he tried to ignore the ticking of the clock as he re-shrank Dogstar and tucked it back into his rucksack. Next he dealt with the Vayeate and the Mercurius, shrinking them and casting feather light charms on them so he could store them alongside his old suit.

The system checks on his brothers' five suits revealed that only four of the five were fully operational and fully armed; Northstar having taken some damage while it had been in Une's possession. Superstar was low on ammunition for the Gatling guns that had been incorporated into the suit but that wouldn't affect their plans though so he wasn't overly worried about and the suit did have beam weaponry so it wasn't completely defenseless.

The five suits were then shrunk down and lightened before getting tucked away into Harry's rucksack so he could transport them through the base to the empty missile silo that his brothers would leave from. Wing Zero joined them a moment later. A glance at the clock showed that he had less than an hour remaining and he quickly cast the temperature regulating spell and disillusionment over himself before he slipped into the vent and made his way to the vent opening located right next to the stairs leading up to the surface level of the base.

His current goal was to locate Zechs so he could find out if the disabled missiles in the silos had ever been replaced before he raided a supply room for weapons and ammunition for his brothers. He had not bothered asking about the missiles sooner because he hadn't want to clue them to the problem if they didn't already know and therefore have to disable them all a second time if the need should arise. Harry found the man pacing in his office looking far more pensive than he would have expected when he slipped into Zechs' office unseen thanks to the inadvertent help of a soldier that had been on his way out.

He spent several long minutes just watching the man that he had considered the bane of his existence for the past nine or so months. He was just opening his mouth in order to get the man's attention without needing to cancel the spells he'd cast on himself (just in case someone walked in on them while he was there) when the office was invaded by the last person Harry had thought he'd see (Zechs having intentionally kept her away from Harry, not that the wizard knew that) and he had to scramble out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the agitated woman.

"Zechs!"

"What are you doing here, Une?" Zechs asked in slight confusion as if he too hadn't expected her to turn up. "I was under the impression that you were visiting the Colonies to fulfill your ambassadorial duties?"

"Is it true? Did the Romefeller Foundation truly remove Treize as the leader of OZ?"

"Yes," Zechs with a sigh that spoke volumes to both adults but confused Harry completely.

"Do you know why?"

"He disagreed with their decision to step up production of the mobile dolls and eliminate the need for ninety percent of their human forces. Why are you here Une?"

"And the order to execute five of the six the Star Pilots?"

"Also true," Zechs wearily agreed as he turned away from the woman to stare out the window. "I have been ordered to hand over all seven pilots so that they might be shipped to Earth."

Harry froze and felt a spike of irritation over that tidbit of information being kept from him by both Zechs and his brothers but quickly shoved the emotion aside as Une responded; her reply leaving Harry reeling slightly at the unexpectedness of it.

"You can't allow them to send any of the Star Pilots to Earth," Une whispered with wide-eyed fright. "They'll publicly execute the five older pilots them to set an example for the Resistance and then he will retaliate and the world will bleed before it burns."

"What are you talking about?" Zechs asked as he whipped around to face the distraught woman once more and tilted his masked face to one side in pure confusion.

"You weren't there, Zechs; you didn't see him," Une cried in a voice that cracked with more than just a little fear. "I'll admit that I was wrong to allow and even encourage those men to take the child and make him think that they were there to use him but at the time I believed it was the only way to push him into cooperating. I had only wanted to frighten him into cooperating to prove that my methods were better than the kit gloves you'd been using on the boy. I never imagined… he burned them alive, Zechs; I watched their bodies turn to ash right before my eyes and they hadn't actually done anything but grope him a bit."

It was a shock to see tears fill Une's eyes as she spoke of that terrible night; Harry had never imagined the woman capable of feeling either fear or regret. It also bothered him that the woman seemed to honestly fear him just as much as he'd feared her since that night as well. Shifting uncomfortably over the startling revelation, Harry listened as she continued.

"I know every one thinks I just hit my head too hard that night but I know what I saw, Zechs. That child is the Angel of Death given flesh and those five pilots are the only thing standing between him and all of humanity. If they are executed there will be no one to stop him from burning the entire world. I tried to forget… but I see him in my nightmares every time I close my eyes, Zechs. Please… don't allow them to take him back to Earth. So long as he is out here in space, then Treize will be safe from his wraith because I led him to believe it was Treize that ordered me to break him."

"It's out of my hands, Une," Zechs replied softly after a few minutes of silence. "I've done all I could; they will be here shortly to arrest me for insubordination and once that happens I will no longer be in a position to stop them from taking the pilots back to Earth."

As if speaking of what was to come was some kind of signal, half a dozen unfamiliar soldiers wearing slightly different uniforms than those that Harry knew were worn by soldiers on the base poured into the office with guns drawn and Harry yanked off his outer shirt so he could use his wings to launch himself up out of the way least he be found due to how crowded the small office had become. He was completely shocked when Zechs offered no resistance as two of the soldiers roughly cuffed his hands behind his back and striped him of his weapons. Two minutes later, the man Harry had once thought looked much like an older Snape (or maybe what he'd imagined Snape's father might look like) entered the room and sneered as he took in the tableau.

"Zechs Merquise, you are under arrest for refusing to comply with a direct order from your superiors," Ken Tsubarov imperiously declared with more than a little disdain coloring his voice. "You are hereby removed of your command of the Lunar Base. You will be held in custody until your trial which will be held via internet conference in seventeen hours time; after which, if found guilty, you will be executed forthwith."

Harry kept glancing between Tsubarov, Une, and Zechs as the scene unfolded below him, utterly confused as he'd thought Zechs was merely being replaced. And he honestly hadn't thought that the man would truly turn his back on OZ and the fact that he had was almost as surreal as the revelation that Une feared him.

There was another long silence as Zechs and Tsubarov seemed to stare at each other before the older man continued speaking, "Leniency may be granted in light of your many years of faithful service if you were to willingly sign over guardianship of the child to me and direct my men to his current location so that he might be taken into protective custody."

"I will never hand the child over to you, to OZ, or to the Romefeller Foundation," Zechs declared in a strong, clear voice and Harry stared at the masked man as he felt a shift in the icy coldness he always associated with the man. "And you will never lay your hands on him; he is well out of your reach."

"Take him down to one of the interrogation rooms and do what you must in order to convince him to relinquish guardianship of the boy. In the mean time; I want the rest of you to search the base from top to bottom; I want that boy found," Tsubarov ordered before turning to address Une. "Colonel Une, why are you here?"

"My ship needed to be resupplied and this was the closest base. While here, I decided to verify the rumors of the changes being made within OZ and sought out Lieutenant Zechs. It was at that point that I learned of his intent to betray OZ. I had just been about to arrest him myself when your men arrived and saved me the trouble of taking him into custody."

"Yes. Well, your presence is no longer needed here so please return to your duties."

"Of course, sir."

Harry ducked out of the office and followed Une for a short ways, his confusion growing as he knew she'd just lied to the Snape-a-like man without any hesitation. There was a possibility that she'd actually lied to Zechs earlier but Harry somehow knew that the fear she'd displayed to Zechs had not been feigned. When the woman stopped just a few feet away from Zechs' office and glanced back, he saw another glimpse of her naked fear before she suddenly donned the cold demeanor he well remembered from his short stint in captivity in Luxembourg.

In that instant he understood that her mind had been fractured at some point; recognizing the signs from the mind magic books he'd read. He felt a brief pang of uncomfortable guilt at the idea that he might have been the one to break her when she'd been seeking to break him but he shoved it away as he landed on the ground and watched as she turned away and disappeared around the corner.

The world has gone mad, Harry thought to himself as he spun on his heel, pulled his shirt back on, and headed towards the nearest set of stairs so he could head down to the prison floor. He made a single side trip to raid one of the weapon supply rooms for a couple dozen pistols, plenty of ammunition, and extra power pacs (for the beam pistols) before he continued on his way. He slipped back into the ventilation ducts the moment he reached the bottom floor (to avoid the soldiers that were now searching through the base for him) and headed towards the prison cells intent on collecting his brothers and the five scientists.

He'd barely been crawling through the vent shafts for a few minutes when the sound of flesh hitting flesh and pained grunts filtered into the vents. Biting his lip, Harry hesitated for a split second before he cursed himself as ten kinds of fools as he followed the sounds to their origin. Glancing through the grate, Harry found a maskless Zechs being restrained by a pair of soldiers as a third soldier steadily beat the tar out of him.

"Are you ready to sign over custody of the boy now?" the soldier holding Zechs' left arm demanded when the third soldier paused a moment to catch his breath.

"Never."

"The longer you refuse to cooperate the worse it will be for you," the same soldier stated.

"You think I care what you do to me? Unlike you, I am not about to hand a child over to those that would cruelly subject him to inhuman experimentations simply because he was born with a Talent."

"You know, Zechs, I think I actually like the fact that you are refusing to cooperate," the soldier beating Zechs declared as he punched Zechs in the stomach again before backhanding him across the face. "I always thought you were far too full of yourself and felt that you needed someone to take you down a peg or two. That I'm the one to do so is only icing on the cake."

"You think I care what you think?" Zechs asked quietly as he spat blood from his mouth. "At least I know that I will be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience when all is said and done. Can you say the same?"

Even more so than what he'd witnessed in Zechs' office, watching the man calmly accept a beating twisted everything Harry thought he knew about the man. Sure, the man had sworn he only wished to protect Harry on several occasions but Harry hadn't really believed him; thinking the man more than a little delusional. Seeing him calmly taking every blow thrown at him over a simple signature on a meaningless form forced Harry to finally acknowledge the possibility that he might have misjudged the man, just a little. Then irritation flooded Harry as he realized the man meant to die for him; as if he had the right to sacrifice himself when Harry couldn't stand him.

Praying he wouldn't regret what he was about to do, Harry slipped his custom cards out of his sleeve and used one of them to cut the screws and hinges holding the grate in place. It was almost comical the way all four men in the room below jumped as the sound of the grill hitting the floor shot through the small room like a bullet. Zechs was then thrown to the floor as the three soldiers pulled out their guns and searched the room at gunpoint in an attempt to find the source of the disturbance. An instant later, three flashes of silver shot through the room before all three soldiers tumbled to the floor; one of Harry's cards firmly embedded in each of their throats.

"Guess they weren't in the mood for a cutthroat game of poker," Harry mused morbidly when he shimmered into view two minutes later as he crouched down beside the man who'd been hitting Zechs.

"What the hell are you doing, Taliesin?" Zechs demanded weakly as he sat up and stared at Harry as the winged teen removed the now bloody cards and calmly wiped the blood off on the soldiers' uniforms (the twenty year old purposely ignoring Harry's rather tasteless pun).

"Something stupid, I'm certain," Harry replied as he turned to face Zechs. "You know, there might be hope for you yet. I never thought it possible… and just because I'm here and I happen to be saving your ass doesn't mean I like you or anything. I still don't need a father either. Now turn around and give me your hands so I can unlock the cuffs."

"You were supposed to get your brothers and get out."

"Yeah, well; I saw you doing something stupid. I'll have to ask Heero to tell you what happens to the idiots that think I will allow them to sacrifice themselves for no reason."

"I was not going to allow them to take you," Zechs softly stated with conviction as he turned so Harry could reach the cuffs.

"Idiot… all you had to do was tell them I was locked up tighter than a Victorian woman's corset and that you'd tell them how to find me if they would allow you to leave. You could have hidden in your secret bunker or escaped on a ship or something."

"They would have just shot me down the moment they knew I lied to them."

"Maybe, maybe not… moot point right now. Can you walk or am I going to have to drag your pathetic ass through this base?"

"I can walk. Give me their guns and I will clear the way for you."

"Don't be stupid or I will knock you unconscious and I really don't have time to haul you around; in case you didn't notice I'm on a bit of a tight schedule here. The rules are really simple; you go where I tell you to and you do what I tell you to or I will stun you, string you up by your feet, and curse you twelve ways from Sunday or until you beg for mercy."

"After everything I've done, everything I've said, and the threats I made… why?"

"I have no fucking clue and I'm going to be asking Heero to find me a shrink when all of this is over because I think there is something seriously wrong with me right now. Now please extract your head out of your nether regions, grab a couple of pistols from your friends here, and stay close; I'm not going to be happy if you slow me down."

With a bewildered Zechs following behind him, Harry used one of his cards to cut through the locks on the door. Just outside the door they ran into a small group of soldiers and Harry prepared to cut them down with his cards only for Zechs to ask him to wait. It turned out they'd been coming to break Zechs free themselves and Harry had simply beat them to the punch. Harry bluntly told them that they had less than two hours to gather all of the soldiers loyal to Zechs and get them off the moon or they'd all die when Harry destroyed the base. Once they left those men behind, Harry made his way quickly to where his brothers were being kept only to stumble to a stop when he heard the sound of several vents snapping shut.

"They've cut the oxygen to the prison cells," Zechs announced. "He plans to kill both the pilots and the scientists in their cells instead of taking them back to Earth. Once he knows I'm free, he'll probably cut the life support to the entire floor."

"Troublesome but not a problem," Harry replied as he began trotting forward once again. "Can you open the doors or will they have changed the codes on you now that you've been stripped of your command?"

"They'll have locked the doors from the command room prior to shutting off the oxygen to the cells and the manual locks will be disabled; a security precaution to prevent breakouts. Reopening the vents would require someone to manually unlock the vents from the command center."

"I thought as much but needed to be certain. I hope Heero is still disrupting the cameras because things are about to get a bit messy down here and I don't need any distractions."

They reached the pilots' cell just a few minutes later and Harry attempted to use another one of his cards to cut through the door only to find the door was thicker than his cards were long (something he'd forgotten). Cursing vehemently, Harry pounded on the door, told his brothers to clear off to one side (in case he needed to blast the door open), and waited for them to confirm that they were out of the way. Harry then told Zechs to step back as he pulled out his wand and eyed the door for a moment while running through a list of spell options in his head until he came up with one that he thought would work without putting his brothers at risk.

Zechs started to ask him what he was doing but Harry shushed him as he concentrated on transfiguring the metal door into paper (a spell he'd gotten from the Annoying Spells book). It was a low enough powered spell that it wouldn't affect the entire base and just powerful enough to be quick and effective. Harry then kicked through the thick paper door after slashing at it with a pair of his knives.

"Good timing, Taliesin," Trowa pronounced as he crawled through the small opening. "It was getting a little stuffy in there. Oh… I see you have unexpected company."

"You know me; can't stand to see people kick a starved puppy and I figured one more little stray would fit right in with the rest of the mongrels I call brothers until I can pawn him off on someone else," Harry quipped with a roll of his eyes before he glanced up and down the hallway. "One of you happen to know which cell the scientists are hanging out in?"

"Two doors down," Zechs replied robotically before one of his five brothers could speak up.

Harry trotted off towards the cell in question without waiting for all of his brothers to slip through the opening he'd made while Zechs stared after him. Harry ignored the hole being bored through his back as he wasted no time in turning the next door to paper and weakening the structure before kicking through it the same as he'd done with the previous door.

"Did he just…?" Zechs asked as he finally looked away from Harry to stare at the five pilots.

"Nah… you're just imagining things," Duo declared with a smug grin as he picked up one of the fragments Harry had torn from the door to the pilots' former cell to show that it had already changed back into metal. "See… OZ has just been using shoddy materials for their doors."

Red lights began flashing and an alarm sounded through the entire floor as Harry returned to the group with the five scientists hesitantly following along behind him. Harry scowled up at the lights as he stopped beside Heero and began pulling several of the purloined pistols from inside of his bag and distributing them to the pilots along with extra boxes of bullets for the standard pistols and power pacs for the beam pistols.

"We don't have a lot of time to waste right now as they've got soldiers hunting through the entire base for me," Harry stated as he dug back into the rucksack to grab the spacesuits he'd pulled from storage and handed those out next so that they could immediately put on in case they cut the oxygen supply to the rest of the lower floor. "They've also moved your scheduled execution up a few days; which is why they just tried to snuff you quietly in your cells instead of going to the trouble of shipping you back to Earth for a public trial in the hopes of preventing an escape attempt."

Harry ignored the winces his brothers made as he gave them each a pointed glare for leaving that bit of information out when they briefed him even as he continued, "I know we originally planned to use all five of your Star Suits to get everyone out of here but we're going to have to adjust the seating arrangements since Northstar took some heavy damage at some point; most likely back before I got caught, when they were trying to figure out what it would take to destroy one of the Star Suits."

Once everyone had pulled on a suit, Harry turned away from the group with the intention of leading the way to the empty silo his brothers were going to use as their exit point only to be pulled to a stop by the scientist he recognized as Dr. J, when the man grabbed hold of Harry's elbow to gain his attention. Harry started and jerked his arm free out of habit even as he spun back around to face the older man.

"Sorry, lad, didn't mean to startle you," Dr. J stated as he intently studied Harry; this being the first time any of the scientists had been allowed to get within five feet of Harry (due to Zechs previously hovering over the teen and keeping the five older men well away from the teen during the rare moments they'd been in the same room). "You said that you were short a suit; we can lead you to a pair of newly constructed Gundams that we began building after Heero and Trowa were captured. We originally intended for our protégés to use them to escape and destroy the base."

"I already rendered the Mercurius and the Vayeate inoperable," Harry replied as he turned away from the man he half hated for the way he'd manipulated Heero into trying to self destruct all those months earlier.

"No, those suits are practically useless as we intentionally built flaws into them that could be easily countered by the original Gundams," Master O countered gruffly. "We secretly recreated two of the original Gundams and included several upgrades and modifications that would allow them to function out in space; unlike the original five."

"How is that possible; I've had my men watching you constantly?" Zechs demanded with a frown.

"You don't think we don't have a few tricks up our sleeves?" Doktor S mockingly inquired as he arched an eyebrow at his former captor. "We spent hours working on those suits from the moment we saw you drag Trowa and the other boy down into the cells."

"We don't need any more suits and two unprotected Gundams aren't going to make any difference," Harry stated dismissively as he attempted yet again to walk away.

"Can we take even the smallest risk that OZ could get their hands on whatever remains of those two suits after you destroy the base?" Heero softly asked which had Harry hunching his shoulders as he glanced back to scowl at his brother. "Better to take them with us and keep them out of OZ's hands than take a chance; that's why you grabbed the Mercurius and the Vayeate after all."

"Fine; where are the stupid robots being kept?"

All five scientists smiled and Harry eyed them distrustfully until Trowa walked up and slapped him on the back of the head, "Quit stalling, Taliesin; we're running out of time."

Harry huffed but waved to the scientists to lead the way. The group was led back into the scientists' former cell and shown to a well hidden secret passageway that ended in an underground facility where two very familiar suits were secured against the wall. Harry stared up at the recreated Heavyarms, taking in the double barreled Gatling gun that served as a left arm and noting that the suit looked far more streamlined than the original bulky Gundam; it was clearly designed to maneuver through space and far more battle oriented than the original (if that was even possible).

The other suit was just as familiar; it wasn't as if Harry would ever forget Wing. Like Heavyarms, it had been streamlined for space travel and had added firepower; including a custom buster rifle that looked suspiciously similar to the one Wing Zero had been equipped with. In fact, if not for the fact that he could tell the suit in front of him was smaller than Zero, had a slightly different chest configuration, and lacked the oversized wing-like thrusters that Zero had on its back (which allowed for greater mobility in space) the new Wing would have been a dead ringer for the formidable suit that was tucked inside of Harry's rucksack.

"Please do not render this one into a useless scrapheap," Dr. J dryly ordered as he looked right at Harry and tapped the Wing clone with his cane.

"Go to hell you malignantly manipulative mumph…" Harry heatedly began only for his words to be smothered by Heero's hand as the taller pilot stepped up behind him and glared at Dr. J over Harry's shoulder.

"Do not antagonize Taliesin needlessly, Dr. J," Heero advised coldly. "He has a short temper and he still hasn't forgiven you for ordering me to destroy the original Wing Gundam after OZ threatened the Colonies that day. Taliesin, you need to calm down and focus on the job at hand."

Harry shrugged out of Heero's hands and sent a heated glare the scientist before he stalked up to the reconstructed Wing and promptly shorted it out as he cut it down to size and lightened it before tucking it into his back. He then cast another glare and a feral smirk over his shoulder as he addressed Dr. J, "There, it's not completely useless now; it can be used as a paperweight."

The five original Gundam pilots smothered their laughter at the look of stunned dismay on Dr. J's face as well as the gob smacked look of understanding on Professor G's face (the latter having just realized that Taliesin had been responsible for the disappearing suits on the day he'd been captured). Harry's smirk turned smug at that point as he gave the new Heavyarms the same treatment before he headed towards the exit.

"Are we leaving now or what?" Harry demanded when no one immediately made to follow him.

Five minutes later, the group was on the move once more and Harry pushed aside his irritation at the scientists to focus on what he was doing (as he'd been ordered) least he snuff up their escape like he had the first rescue attempt four months earlier. As they traveled through the halls Harry and Heero quietly argued back and forth about the new seating arrangements; Heero unhappy with Harry's decision to include Zechs after what they'd discussed previously. In the end, Heero reluctantly backed down once Harry explained his reasoning (which had more to do with Zechs' usefulness in keeping those soldiers loyal to the man off their back than it did with any desire to actually save the man).

Trowa, Wufei, and Duo would be leaving first; taking the five scientists and Heero with them with Trowa collecting the long abandoned shuttle that Quatre, Wufei, and Harry had arrived in over four months earlier. Quatre, with Harry and Zechs' help, would be collecting Zayeed immediately after that before they left as well. Once they were all out and clear of the moon, Harry would destroy the Lunar Base using Wing Zero. The only potential problem was that Harry needed to give the men following Zechs enough time to get clear of the base before he destroyed it (the teen not wishing to have the lives of innocents on his hands).

Upon reaching the empty silo that Wufei and Harry had used to enter the base four months earlier, Harry left Quatre and Zechs in the antechamber to guard their backs while he led the rest of their small group into the pressure chamber. The minute he was given the green light, he opened the door to the missile silo and began restoring the Star Suits one at a time, starting with Superstar (something all five scientists paid close attention to, though they couldn't really see anything because Harry's wand was tucked inside its holster beneath his spacesuit).

Once Trowa climbed into his suit (along with Heero and Doktor S) the green eyed teen moved his suit up to make room for the next one. Harry restored Deathstar next and helped Duo get the next two scientists (Professor G and Instructor H) up into their seats while snagging an extra spacesuit from Duo's storage cupboard for Zayeed (since he'd given the original suit he'd taken for the man to Zechs). Dragonstar was the final suit prepped and Harry grudgingly helped Wufei get Dr. J (the wizard still upset with the man) and Master O up into the suit. Once Wufei fired up the suit, Harry slipped back inside and locked the doors just seconds before Trowa blasted his way out of the silo and the three pilots took off.

"Zechs, did you ever replace the disabled missiles in the other silos?" Harry asked as he strode back into the main part of the base five minutes later.

"What disabled missiles?"

"The day you caught me in your trap; you'd made a comment about the havoc I'd caused around the base," Harry started as he headed for the nearest stairs. "Did you have anyone inspect the occupied missile silos at any time after that day?"

"No… they are only inspected twice a year and we'd completed an inspection just weeks before you broke onto the base so the next one wasn't due for another two months; why?"

"Ah… no particular reason," Harry drawled as he shared a conspiratorial grin with Quatre. "Just wanted to know how effective the external defenses would be against my brothers as they make their escape."

"What did you do? You said something about the missiles being disabled."

"Yeah… you remember the state Wing Zero was in after I disabled him? I really need a better name for him than that if I'm going to be stuck flying that monstrosity for any length of time. Anyway, the missiles that are currently occupying said silos are pretty much in the same state as Zero was."

"They'll just replace them with missiles from storage and repair them later," Zechs pointed out.

"Yeah… but first they'd have to be able to access the silos. I might have given them a few obstacles to get through that are exceedingly difficult to uh… remove. And since one of them has sat there for four months… well let's just say that it is going to be a rather unpleasant task that would take years to clear and I don't plan on giving them that time."

"You know what… I don't want to know," Zechs muttered as he shook his head.

"Huh… maybe hell has started to freeze over after all," Harry mused drawing a confused look from Quatre and a grimace from Zechs; the latter immediately getting the reference to a comment Harry had made earlier in the week when he'd eavesdropped on Harry and Heero's conversation.

The next snag in their escape plan appeared in the form of a dozen soldiers currently facing off against Lady Une and a young teen Harry had never seen before. There were additional dead and dying soldiers littered up and down the hall, indicating that the current battle had been going on for several minutes already. The problem was that the entire group was occupying the hallway right outside of the room where Zayeed was currently being kept. Even as they stumbled upon the group, Une was shot down as she sought to prevent Tsubarov's soldiers from executing Quatre's father.

"Merlin's ruptured left…" Harry cursed loudly, drawing the attention of all twelve soldiers plus the young lady that had been fighting beside Une. "Couldn't you scum sucking diseased riddled bugbears have found another hallway to pollute with your pestilent presence? I swear this day just keeps getting worse and if I get a migraine out of this someone is going to get the hexing of their life so I don't have to suffer alone."

"It's the kid! Kill the other two but take him alive!" some fool yelled as their guns all swung towards Harry in a synchronized move that looked rehearsed.

"You're going to have to take a rain check," Harry declared as he flooded the hall with his cards while Quatre and Zechs fired into the huddle mass of soldiers.

It didn't take long to cut all twelve of them down; most of them falling to Harry's cards. The girl just stared at Harry with wide, frightened eyes before she meeped and fainted. Harry shook his head and used his wand to summon and clean his cards before returning them to the pocket he'd taken them from.

"That's twice that damned woman has attempted to intervene today."

"You were in my office when I was arrested," Zechs stated as he turned to Harry in shock. "That's how you knew how to find me and how you learned about the execution orders."

"Way to state the obvious but for the record it was the sound of you being beaten to a pulp that led me to you," Harry snarked as he passed the extra spacesuit he was carrying to his brother. "Quatre, it might be best if you hurry up and collect your father; we'll probably have more company soon if they've managed to regain control of their cameras."

Quatre took the suit and slipped through into the room that the woman and the girl had been guarding while Harry walked up to stand over the injured Une and her unconscious helper. He glowered at Une for a moment before he grimaced as he recalled the abject fear he'd seen her display earlier when she'd been alone with Zechs.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with the two of you?" Harry wondered out loud after another minute had passed.

"If you leave them here, they will die," Zechs pointed out.

"I'm well aware of that. I actually don't have a problem taking the girl with us because she doesn't deserve to die with the rest of the scum," Harry snapped back as he carefully shifted the girl to one side. "What I do have a problem with is having anything to do with the wretched woman beside her. Why the hell couldn't she have stayed the same cold-hearted bitch I remembered from my nightmares? She has no fucking right to be human enough to feel fear or regret after what she was going to allow those men do to me. She calls me a monster but can't see her own hands are covered with the blood of innocents while all I ever did was protect myself and my brothers from the likes of her."

"Will you be able to live with yourself if you just leave her here to die?" Quatre asked softly as he reappeared with his father in tow in time to hear the last half of Harry's angry rant.

"No," Harry tightly replied as he scowled at the woman.

Quatre carefully checked on the condition of the wounded woman and tended said wounds to prevent her from dying of blood loss as Harry turned his back so he wouldn't have to see the woman. Growling, Harry realized that he was two spacesuits short and they were running out of time. Stepping off a ways down the hall, Harry pulled Northstar out of his bag and laid it flat on the ground before restoring it to side so he could crawl inside and grab another pair of suits. By the time he dropped back down to the floor and returned Northstar to his rucksack, Zechs had brought the young girl back around and was helping her up off the floor. She flinched when Harry passed her the smaller of the two suits but she at least didn't faint again.

"Tsubarov's men took control of Une's command ship when he learned she'd lied to him about something," the girl explained in response to a question from Zechs as she struggled into the suit while trying to keep an eye on Harry's every move as he glared at Une while Quatre and a slightly dazed Zayeed worked to get her into the spacesuit he'd tossed to them. "I'd hidden from the troops and snuck into the base to find Une to let her know and I found her in the control room turning on the life support system to the lower levels so she could free the other pilots. When she learned they were also going to execute the pilot of the rogue Gundam we headed down here only…"

"We don't have time to just sit here and chit chat," Harry groused in order to cut off the girl's story, unwillingly to hear any more about how Une had changed her spots once again. He then half spun on his heel to kill one of the wounded soldiers that had just attempted to shoot Quatre in the back and disarmed the rest of the downed soldiers (both the living and the dead) before he added, "We're sitting ducks and the others are probably facing a large number of mobile dolls out there right now and if one of them gets hurt; I'm going to be pissed."

"You're a right cold-hearted prick you know that?" the girl cried as she scurried over to one of her fellow soldiers and immediately began treating his injuries.

"And you are the delusional bootlicker of a murderous bitch," Harry shot back as he pulled her out of the way and used his wand to bandage the soldier's wounds.

Another three soldiers were subsequently treated by Harry each time the girl moved on to check her fallen comrades (much to the girl's ire due to the way he manhandled her each time she got in his way and repeatedly stopped her attempts to give the others first aide) before he declared that they had wasted enough time and began leading their motley group away from the area towards the closest hanger.

They ran into several small groups of Tsubarov's men as they moved as quickly through the base as they could burdened with six wounded as they were. When they finally reached the nearest hanger, it was to find it filled to bursting with mobile dolls being readied for deployment and dozens of soldiers. Cursing up a blue streak, Harry slammed the door shut and sealed it with a quick spell (knowing any spell powerful enough to disable or destroy all of the dolls at once would also affect a good portion of the base or blow up the immediate area and catch them in the backlash) before closing his eyes and running through the blue prints of the base in his mind.

"Hanger eighteen should be empty," Zechs suggested when he assumed that Harry was at a lost as to where to go and what to do.

"Why will that hanger be any emptier than the others?" Harry asked as he opened his eyes to glance down the hall in the direction of the hanger in question.

"Because that is where I was housing the Tallgeese and my personal shuttle."

"Which means that it will be heavily guarded by Tsubarov's men but relatively free of the dolls. We're going to have to hurry; the others will think something's gone wrong if we don't get out of here soon."

Harry started jogging towards the hanger in question as he glanced down at his watch. He then glanced back behind him and let his eyes land first on the young girl (who scowled at him) before shifting them to the unconscious Une (which had him scowling). Pulling his eyes away from her, Harry scanned the grim faces of the four injured soldiers that were gamely trudging along despite their injuries. He then caught Quatre's eyes and his expression softened when the blonde gave him a small, encouraging smile that was filled with more than a little pain due to the wealth of negative emotions flying about.

Next, Harry took in Zayeed's gaunt form; the man having really suffered during his time trapped in his mind within Wing Zero. Zayeed flushed and looked away and Harry guessed that the man was recalling their battle and the things he had said to Harry. Finally, Harry's eyes landed on Zechs' battered face and he felt his perception of him shifting further as he noted the pained expression on his face and in the stiff way he held himself in order to avoid jarring the injuries that had been inflicted upon him during his short stent as a prisoner.

Jerking his eyes back around to the front, Harry shoved his conflicting thoughts out of his mind as he tried to focus on the matter hand. They were nearly to their destination when another group of soldiers rounded the corner and both sides raised their weapons only for the girl to sharply cry out for them all to hold their fire; she apparently recognized the men as part of Une's crew. They attempted to take Une off their hands but Harry told them they would not have a chance in hell of getting her back to their ship and taking back control of said ship burdened with the injured woman before the base was destroyed. Harry told him he would give them thirty minutes to gather up those men and women that were loyal to Une and take back their ship but beyond that they were S.O.L.

The teen was a bit pissed at Harry's heavy handed handling of the situation but Harry simply told her she was welcome to run off with the soldiers. She refused to leave Une's side though (saying she didn't trust Harry one bit) and doggedly followed their group into the hanger bay (the four wounded soldiers Harry had treated sticking close to her side). Inside they found another two squads of soldiers waiting; only instead of Tsubarov's or Une's men they were Zechs' men led by a young captain named Trant Clark. They'd been guarding Zechs' shuttle under the belief that their leader would use it to escape.

"I don't have time to listen to any arguments you guys are about to put up," Harry declared as he recognized the young captain as the leader of the men that had attempted to rescue Zechs earlier. "I have a growing headache and will seriously hurt the first person to open their mouths right now. This damn breakout slash rescue has been nothing but one disaster after another and any more delays will not be met with sunshine and daisies. You gentlemen will guard the doors and get that pile of junk Zechs calls a shuttle prepped for flight."

There was a brief moment when it looked like Captain Clark would argue anyway but a discreet headshake from Zechs had him complying with Harry's orders. Once they were out of his way, Harry pulled out Rockstar and restored the suit so he could help Quatre and Zayeed load the unconscious Une into the cockpit along with one of the less injured soldiers that had been with their group. The girl (whose name Harry still had not yet learned) attempted to join them but Harry simply pulled her down off the suit as Quatre closed the cockpit door.

"There is no room for you in Rockstar; it'll be crowded enough with those three in there with Quatre," Harry stated when the girl tried to punch him. "You have the option of taking the shuttle, riding with me, or staying behind." Harry strode away from the girl when he noted Zechs heading towards the taller than normal mobile suit that Heero had fought against during the OZ ambush that saw Harry faking Wing's detonation.

He'd almost caught up to the man when he called out, "I hope you aren't planning anything stupid."

"I'm going to provide cover for the rest of you to escape," Zechs declared as he made to climb up into the cockpit.

"Yeah… thought so," Harry rasped. "You have to the count of three to back away from the suit before I stun you and intentionally fry the systems in that monstrosity. You and I both know you are currently not in a condition to pilot that suit; I read the specs on it and know that it will do you more harm than the Mercurius did to me when I was testing it."

When Zechs refused to be deterred, Harry suited actions to words and knocked Zechs out before shrinking, lightening, and tossing the Tallgeese into his rucksack (making more than one person gape in shock – very few of the soldiers assigned to the base having ever witnessed him manipulating the suits before). Scowling fiercely, Harry brought Wing Zero out of his rucksack and restored the suit; causing Zayeed to exclaim and curse from inside of Rockstar's cockpit (not that Harry could hear him). Harry then scrambled up into the cockpit of the Gundam before levitating Zechs up after him. He was in the process of strapping the unconscious man into the fold down bed (using magic to give him extra protection) when the teen and yet another soldier scrambled up into the cockpit.

"You aren't leaving us behind; who knows what you'll do to Captain Une if we're not there to protect her."

Harry sneered at her as he stepped around her and slammed the door to the cockpit shut so the rest of the men wouldn't hear what he was about to say. He then turned to glare up at the slightly taller girl as he angrily hissed, "That woman you seem to worship is a heartless bitch who authorized three of her soldiers to play with me while she watched. I don't know if you've ever had the misfortune of being raped but let me tell you it is far from pleasant and it is an experience I'd rather not ever have to go through again. So kindly shut the fuck up or get the hell out of my suit."

Turning away from the shocked girl and the equally shocked soldier beside her, Harry began securing the various suits he'd stolen and the two damaged Star Suits into the special rack he'd created to hold them. He then locked his rucksack into the storage bin before climbing into the pilot's seat and firing up half of the suit's systems. He noted both the girl and the soldier meekly slipping into the passenger seats from the corner of his eye as he activated the external communication system and warned the soldiers still inside of the hanger that they had five minutes to get to their shuttle. Harry then switched channels and hailed his brothers.

"Taliesin here, what's the status quo out there guys?"

"A veritable flood of mobile dolls, an annoyin' spaceship, and da occasional laser fire from da base but oddly enough no missiles. Ya wouldn't know anything about that would ya, kiddo?" Duo replied.

"What the hell is taking you so long, Taliesin? You were supposed to be out of there close to an hour ago," Heero demanded a heartbeat later.

"The shuttle has suffered some minor neglect but we should have it up and running here shortly. So far no one has noticed us hanging out here on the surface. Everything alright little brother?" Trowa cut in next.

"Yeah it's been just peachy here and I've been picking up strays left and right," Harry barked back with pure sarcasm. "Quatre and I ran into a bit of trouble and picked up some excess and unwanted baggage. I'm going to demand professional help after all this shit is over and someone else is going to pay for my insanity to be treated because I sure as hell ain't paying for it."

"I noticed ya said nothing about da lack of missiles."

"Does he need to say it for you to know he's responsible for the sabotage of the base's entire missile field?" Wufei inquired drolly.

"Ha, ha, Wufei; as I recall you helped me set those up by looping the cameras while I worked that day," Harry shot back with a snort.

"Zechs' men are ready to go, Taliesin; they just hailed me asking for orders," Quatre announced.

"Gotta go guys, we'll be out in T minus two minutes and thirty seconds. I suggest once you see Wing Zero that you flee as far and as fast as you can because I plan on blowing this base sky high… and yes I do know there is no actual sky out on the moon, Duo."

"Do try to leave the moon in one piece, Taliesin," Heero dryly instructed. "It would be hard to explain to all the kiddies around the world why they suddenly have two broken moons or no moon at all."

Harry laughed in response and switched back to the external comm. unit so he could address the shuttle, "I suggest you all get your asses into the shuttle before I open hanger door up the old fashioned way; Rockstar will leave first, followed by the shuttle, with me and Wing Zero bringing up the rear… and I really need a new name for this suit. I'd call him Prongster but my father had better taste and Padfoot already had Dogstar named after him. Anyway, Quatre, please send the boys in the shuttle our private frequency so we don't have to keep switching."

Shaking off his roving thoughts, Harry switched back over to the other channel as he reached out, turned on the rest of the suit's systems (including the Zero Interface), and grabbed hold of the suit's controls. He tensed for a moment, expecting the Zero System to immediately attack his mind, only to relax when nothing seemed to happen. Sighing softly, he checked to make certain that everyone had boarded the shuttle before he walked the suit forward and had it kneel down so he could dig Wing Zero's hands beneath the lip of the door. He raised the suit back up to its feet fifteen seconds later and the door folded up like an accordion with a loud squeal and everything not nailed down within the hanger (aside from the two suits and the shuttle) was sucked out through the door in an instant as all of the air was pulled out into the vacuum of space.

Rockstar, lifted a few feet off the ground, shifted into flight mode, and slipped beneath the door ten seconds later and Harry monitored Quatre's flight before having Wing Zero wave at the shuttle carrying Zechs' men and the other two wounded soldiers so they knew it was clear for them to head out next (Rockstar having cleared the way for them). Harry slipped out next, staying in suit mode as he split the custom buster rifle into two parts so he could deal with the mobile dolls that turned to attack him the moment he exited the hanger. He picked off a few that were tailing the shuttle before shifting so he could cut down those that were still on the ground.

Each shot he fired seemed to make the headache that had been building since he'd first entered Zechs' office several hours earlier stab deeper into his brain until suddenly it felt as if his head was being split in two. Letting out a scream of pure agony, Harry tried to reach up to clutch his head only to find that he couldn't move his arms. The last thing he heard before he was sucked into his mindscape was all five of his brothers calling out his name in concern and fear.

Inside of his mindscape, the first thing Harry noted was the new damage that hadn't been there the last time he visited his inner mind. The second thing he noticed was the seemingly larger than life replica of the Wing Zero Gundam crashing across his mindscape without any care as to what it crushed beneath his feet. Angry at having his mind invaded so callously, Harry immediately attacked the intruder; activating defenses he hadn't thought he'd need in this world but had made anyway because they had been part of the learning process. The battle for dominance seemed to drag on for hours until Harry finally managed to cage the intrusion and he staggered up to the now man sized suit and glared at it through the bars.

"You're as bad as Moony during his furry time of the month," Harry declared tiredly. As if comparing the suit to the memory of the werewolf was the signal the mental image of Wing Zero was waiting for, the suit morphed into a large, metal wolf and howled long and loud before rolling over and baring its throat submissively. Harry gave the suit a baleful glare as he arched an eyebrow and mused, "I can't call you Moony, there was only one Moony just as there was only one Padfoot but I suppose I could call you Wolfstar. I better not have to fight you every time we fly together though; otherwise I'm going to be pissed. I don't need the headache or the extra work to repair the parts of my mind that you've trampled."

The mechanical wolf whined and rolled over to grovel in the ground at Harry's feet inside of the cage and Harry banished the cage with a thought before scratching the metal monstrosity behind the ear with one hand. He smiled a bit when the once feral wolf rolled his tongue out and figuratively melted into a pile of goo over that small bit of attention. After a few minutes, the wolf shook itself off and trotted off into Harry's mindscape and began digging about as he put Harry's inner mind back to rights; the Zero Interface actually repairing the damage it had caused.

"Good boy… you behave now, I have some brothers I need to reassure and some mobile dolls to turn into chew toys for you."

The wolf gave one last robotic yip as Harry turned away from his mindscape and stepped back into his body to an aching head and blood running down his face. Groaning, Harry shook off the pain as best he could while he tried to determine just how long he'd been out of it and assess the severity of the physical damage he'd received from the forced mind intrusion. The loud calls from his brothers weren't helping though and he had just a glimpse of two Star Suits circling protectively around him through the external cameras before a frightened face popped up right in front of him and he jerked back and cried out at the shock of it.

"What happened? Are you alright? You blanked out for about ten minutes after you screamed," his reluctant female passenger demanded before she gasped as she caught sight of his eyes through his helmet's face plate.

"Ten minutes? Huh, felt like ten hours. I'm fine now. Best return to your seat; things are about to get a little interesting," Harry replied after catching his breath. He then switched the communication system from audio only to audio and video feed so he let his brothers see and hear that he was just fine. "Sorry guys, Wolfstar tore through my mind unexpectedly; we're fine now."

"Taliesin? Harry is that you? Are you in control?"

"Who else is it going to be in here, Trowa?" Harry asked back as he frowned up at the small square holding Trowa's face. When he noted the trepidation on his brother's face, Harry glanced to the other four squares and noted that more than one of them flinched back a touch when they made eye contact with him. "What's wrong? Is it the blood? It's just a nosebleed and a small trickle from where my old scar split open guys."

"We're just a little concerned that it might be Zero talking instead of you," Heero slowly pointed out; the blue eyed pilot staring at Harry's mismatched eyes which were glowing different colors; his green eye glowing gold and his blue eye glowing red (though Harry wasn't aware of that at the moment).

"It's all me, Heero. The Zero system invaded my mind but I've subdued it for now; it shouldn't give me any more trouble. You guys need to get out of here though so I can let Wolfstar do his thing."

"Wolfstar…?"

"Told you the suit needed a better name."

"Don't forget what I told ya about that suit's operatin' system," Duo instructed before his eyes were drawn to Harry's two conscious passengers. "Hilde? Is that you? What are ya doin' in my little brother's suit? And who is that sittin' beside ya?"

"Duo…? This is your little brother!?"

"Taliesin, how did ya find Hilde? Where's Zechs?"

"Zechs is snoozing off a stunner on my bunk bed; he was annoying me. And I didn't find her… she sorta fell into our laps along with a couple of other wounded soldiers when we went to collect Zayeed. Didn't even know her name until you said it just now. Not that it matters anyway; she hates my guts and she's as pleasant as a mosquito looking for lunch on a bicorn's ass."

"Just be careful will ya, Taliesin?" Duo admonished with a laugh as the long haired pilot caught sight of Hilde's indignant expression over Harry's shoulder. "And Hilde, I've got two bits of advice for ya; hold on tight and try not ta scream too loud. It will only encourage him."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hilde asked in a bewildered voice.

"I will, Duo; now shoo… I need to turn these dolls into proper chew toys. Hope the two of you are buckled in back there because I'm about to take Wolfstar out for a bit of a test run."

The next one hundred and fifteen minutes were a blur in Harry's mind as he unleashed the full fury of Wolfstar on the mobile dolls and the Lunar Base. Every indignity he'd suffered inside of that base, every single threat he'd heard leveled at himself and at his brothers, and the constant stress of never knowing what was going to happen to him or his family fueling that fury. The Zero System, working side by side with his inner conscience and drawing on his magic through that mental connection that had been forged the moment the system invaded his mind, only enhanced his already considerable piloting skills as it reduced his reaction times to a mere fraction of what they had been. And Harry had been considered a prodigy in Dogstar.

Having seized control of the Zero system (instead of allowing it to control him), Harry was able to push the newly named Wolfstar to its limits and draw the performance of a lifetime from the suit. Hilde ended up screaming for nearly eight minutes straight before her voice gave out and then she took to praying silently as she clung to her seat with a white knuckled grip. The unnamed soldier wasn't unaffected but he ended up passing out before Hilde stopped screaming due to his wounds.

When the battle was over there was a new crater on the face of the moon and not a single room of the entire base remained intact; not even Zechs' hidden bunker. Those who had witnessed Harry's brutal and efficient systematic destruction of the Lunar Base and its entire fleet of over seven hundred mobile dolls (excluding his brothers and those that considered him a friend) would name Harry, and his stolen Gundam, the Demon of the Stars.

Harry did not escape from the battle unscathed; the Zero System had drained his magical core completely over the course of the battle and within seconds of striking down the last mobile doll that had escaped the destruction of the base, Harry slipped into unconsciousness. His mismatched eyes still glowing red and gold as he was pulled into his mindscape where he found the semi-sentient wolf that represented the Zero Interface waiting for him.


AN: Lots of action… lots of explosions too… even if they mostly occurred off the page. I'd have written out more of the battle scene there at the end but I figured the chapter was long enough as it is and that was before I added in an extra thousand or so words to account for the two covert Gundams that the scientists had made. I'd originally forgotten all about them having recreated two suits during the whole Lunar Base Arc until after I rewatched those episodes last week.

I could have left them out but that would have marginalized the scientists' roles far more than I already have. I did, however, change which two Gundams they recreated and they built them from scratch instead of using pieces of the original suits. For those who might have forgotten, it was Deathscythe and Shenlong that were originally recreated/rebuilt during that part of the series. And we can see that Harry is still nursing a grudge against Dr. J for what he'd ordered Heero to do during the ambush.

We also saw that the way Harry sees Zechs and Une isn't all there is to either individual with Zechs displaying the honor that seemed to have been missing from earlier chapters (though in his defense, Harry always thought the worst of him and Harry did try the man's patience). We also see that, yes, Une's mind had been fractured; I imagine the first cracks appeared at sometime around the failed assassinations at the New Edwards Base mission and during the failed take over of the Earth and completely broke the night Harry escaped from Luxembourg Castle. Treize sending her out into space probably affected her much as it did in canon; I just didn't show that part.

Harry finally got to let off a little steam there at the end of the chapter and got a bit of revenge at the same time. I do hope that I managed to surprise most of you with how I handled the way the Zero Interface interacted with Harry; the whole reason I needed Harry to learn Occlumency once he'd made it into space was because I was building up to this chapter. He needed to know just enough to have some skill but not be so skilled that he could handle the intrusion with a snap of his fingers or a mere thought.

Anyway, I've said enough for now and this chapter is more than long enough as it is. The next chapter will deal with the fallout from the destruction of the Lunar Base. ~ Jenn