MS Gundam Wing: Revolution

Book Three, Chapter Three

Treize wondered what as going on, even as the aristocratic man studied images of the stolen Libra. The massive space battleship had been stolen from the shipyards by Akio Ohtori, but so far he had refused all communication and his motives remained unknown.

Clearly, he and the other Duelists had been betrayed. It was a unpalatable thought, and he hated admitting it, but it seemed he and the others had been played. Even as he, Dorothy and the others had moved against their enemies, Akio had been moving against them. He now had, arguably, the most powerful piece on the chessboard, and all they had were pawns and a few knights.

'Pawns can become queens,' Treise reminded himself firmly.

Worse, he also didn't know what had happened to Une. She had sent no check in messages for nearly a week, and there had been no sightings of Epyon. He knew she wouldn't abandon her duty, and the Colonies would have revealed if they captured or destroyed her. So either she had suffered a complete breakdown... or someone else had her. Akio, most likely.

The idea of someone whom he cared about as much as he did, in Akio's hands... it frightened Treize, honestly. A fear made worse by her already weakened mental state. He simply did not know what being in Akio's presence would do to Une, but he doubted it would be good.

The soft chime of a incoming call thankfully jarred Treize from his worried thoughts. He pressed the receive button as he asked, "Yes?"

"Mr. Treize," his secretary said briskly, "there is a call from the detention wing, regarding Mrs. Ohtori."

Treize raised his eyebrow at that. "Put them through," he ordered.

The older man looked tired, his OZ uniform slightly rumpled, presumably from long hours at the job. "Mr. Treize," he sighed, "I have some bad news."

A sinking feeling stirred in Treize's stomach, "Yes?"

"Kanae Ohtori is dead," he said simply.

"I thought she was under suicide watch and under armed guard," Treize demanded.

"She WAS," he said grimly. "And it wasn't by suicide capsule either. Sometime overnight, without setting off any medical alert systems, she just... died."

Damn it. Treize had hoped the woman might at least give them some insights into Akio...

"Mr. Treize... how old would you say Kanae was?" the guard asked curiously.

Treize looked at him curiously, "Her twenties, possibly early thirties. Why?"

He hesitated then the older man sighed. "Because the body in our cells," he hesitated, "I'd guess she was in her eighties. Maybe even older. But the DNA matches Kanae from her intake examination."

"Huh," Treize grunted, honestly not sure what else to say. Other than being deeply disturbed, in retrospect, by Kanae's regular attempts to sleep with him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It happened a few days after Dorothy had been captured. They were housing Dorothy and her men on the surface of the colony, but Dorothy regularly visited her wounded in the infirmary. On her way back, Juri had deliuberately intercepted her in the hall.

"Arisugawa," Dorothy nodded coolly.

Juri moved to block her from advancing as she addressed the guards, "Can I have some time with her?"

The two young men exchanged glances. "Are you going to kill her?" one asked.

"No, just talk to her," Juri promised.

"Pity," the other guard noted. "Take your time, call when you want us to take her away."

"I feel SO safe with such men guarding me," Dorothy noted wryly as they wandered off.

"OZ in general and you in particular have hurt a lot of people in the Colonies," Juri said dryly, "it's understandable."

Dorothy grunted, but didn't deny that. "So," she asked, "what can I do for you?"

Juri took a steadying breath. "Shiori was with your group," she finally said, "how? What happened to her?"

"You don't know?" Dorothy asked curiously, no malice in her voice.

It still stung, though, as Juri admitted, "I saw her die, Catalonia. I was sure of it. That's why I did my best to move on. If I had known..."

Dorothy nodded slightly "You were in Ohtori with Akio," she noted, "I've met others who seem to have been influenced by him. It's quite possible he took memories from you, before you left."

That was a disturbing thought, and not one Juri wanted to linger on. "What happened to Shiori?" she repeated.

"I don't know all the details," Dorothy started out by cautioning Juri then continued, "I only became interested in her when you became known as a Gundam pilot. But keeping that in mind, here's what I know..."

Shiori had been hospitalized with burns after the Ohtori Academy fire. She recovered with only one scar, miraculously, but her mental state was questionable. She was calm dealing with nurses and female doctors, but male doctors agitated her. She finally attacked a man with a chair, and was transferred to psychiatric observation, then finally a sanitarium.

There Shiori stayed for several years, her odd paranoia and bursts of violence seeming untreatable. Dorothy contacted her in the hopes of harnessing her as a weapon against Juri, and trained her as a pilot.

Dorothy sighed as she added, "I really hadn't realized just how unstable she was. I had assigned a full time nurse to care for her, as well as making sure she got her medication."

Juri nodded grimly. "So what went wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know," Dorothy admitted. "We made the decision to launch Shiori's Tallgeese in the last battle. On the way to the hangar she attacked her nurse and beat her to death with her helmet."

"Damn," Juri cursed softly, shaking her head.

"Casval Winner found the body, and was the one who stopped Shiori," Dorothy said, "but I don't think she had a choice. I put a madwoman in a Tallgeese, and it was my responsibility."

Juri was faintly surprised at how willingly Dorothy took responsibility. 'She may be traitorous bitch, but she's a decent commander,' she thought. "Thank you for telling me," Juri said, then moved off to summon the guards again.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Miliardo Peacecraft was trying his best to be patient with the grinding negotiations between the three factions, but a part of him wanted to just slap on his Zechs mask and start shooting people. It was ESPECIALLY annoying when it was his current allies the Colonies and his former allies OZ who were being the most difficult.

"Could I just get out my Gundam and settle this?" Juri muttered, echoing his thoughts.

"It's rather frustrating," he agreed wryly.

OZ was reluctant to believe Akio was as great a threat as they said he was. The Colonies accepted Akio was a threat, but they refused to get involved any deeper without assurances that OZ wouldn't give. It was a mess, but one they had to settle before they could take action.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, please," Releen said, standing as she raised her hands. "I believe we have a basic structure for a agreement, yes?"

"About time," Dorothy Catalonia muttered, the blond representing the Romafeller foundation.

Releena ignored that. "We will unite our forces to disable or destroy..."

"Ideally destroy," Duo Maxwell muttered.

Releena ignored that too. "... the Libra. Once we do so the OZ forces have agreed to retreat to a close Earth orbit, and negotiations for a new peace treaty will begin," she finished.

"Assuming they decide to retreat, instead of just finishing us off after Libra mauls us," Juri noted cynically.

Dorothy sighed. "Arisugawa, I know you have a low opinion of OZ, but Treize is a man of his word," she said. "He will do as he promised."

"And he's not the only one in charge over there," Duo said dryly. He shook his head as he addressed the colony representatives, "If it helps any, the Gundams will do our best to make sure they deeply regret it if they try screwing with us."

"It actually does, a bit," the older man acknowledged. He got up, along with other civilians as he said, "I suspect you'll need to start military planning, other than 'let's all jump it.' Good luck."

"Thanks," Duo waved as the civilians filed out.

That left Miliardo, Juri, Dorothy, Duo and Quatre, along with Releena and a deeply uncomfortable looking OZ lieutenant. "All right," Juri said briskly, "Dorothy, I assume you're here representing your faction of OZ too?"

"What there is of it," Dorothy made a face.

Juri studied the other woman, wondering how she could be so cavalier. Though when they talked earlier, there had been a odd degree of regret too... she shook her head, not wanting to dwell on it. "Do we have plans or combat data on the Libra?" she asked.

"No," Quatre said, looking pointedly at the OZ representative.

The man looked honestly apologetic as he said, "OZ had the thing built under the deepest layer of secrecy we could manage. There are no plans available other than those on site, which were destroyed when Libra launched."

"Oh, lovely," Duo muttered.

"We had agents get inside, I understood?" Releena asked thoughtfully.

"True," Quatre conceded, "but they didn't get away with much. Still, it's enough data to start."

"The shielding is HOW thick?" Juri yelped as they read through the files.

"It has how much short range defences?" Duo blinked, hoping the figures were off.

"The main gun is HOW powerful?" Releena paled visibly.

"This is going to be difficult," Dorothy understated, shaking her head.

To be continued...