Episode 16: Old Friends become New Friends
The mysterious discovery and disappearance of an Edenite found in Antarctica leads to his reappearance in North Am. But this Edenite is far different than any other, a brutal, violent warrior unlike anything seen in ages. Aelan Marcus tries to unravel the shrouds of mercy surrounding this alien being, hoping that he can find an answer before the berserker strikes again…
St. John Paul's Memorial Hospital, New Richmond
The doctor emerged from the ICU that Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft was being monitored in. As the assembled group (for Trowa and Wufei had recently joined them) stood, the doctor shook his head sadly.
"It's bad. The internal injuries are massive. Her ribcage was almost totally shattered, slicing open almost every major organ. I'm actually amazed that she's lived this long." The doctor admitted.
Aelan was the first to ask the question on several of their minds. "What about the child?"
Once again, the doctor shook his head, "The child is still alive, somehow it had been spared most of the violent blow, but its mother isn't going to live much longer, and when she goes, so does the kid."
Hilde almost couldn't bear such terrible news. Almost as if she was pleading, she cried, "Surely there's something we can do!" Her plea drew the attention of a few of the others in the waiting room, and Noin quickly quieted her.
"We just simply don't have the means to repair such extensive damage. Right now, the foreign minister is on life support, and that will extend her prognosis, but we are merely delaying the inevitable."
As the doctor finished, a young man suddenly burst into the waiting room, and shouted, "What happened?"
Aelan looked at the brash new visitor sternly, and said, "Who in God's name are you?"
Pausing for a second, as if trying to remember his own name, the young man finally replied, "Remington Geoffrey. I'm the one who found the Edenite that attacked you. He had disappeared from his stasis tube at our camp two days ago. When I learned of the attack, I came here as soon as I could. What happened?"
As Remington listened to the full report, he nodded, and sorrowfully dropped his head, "I can't believe that an Edenite would be capable of such a thing."
Off to the side, Aelan had sat down in one of the chairs lining the waiting room, his hands on his chin, his mind deep in thought as he replied, "He shouldn't be."
As the group turned in the Advisor's direction, he continued as if not caring who was listening. "Edenites are no stronger than humans. As a matter of fact, I'd say the last few eons have made us weaker physically. An Edenite simply shouldn't have the ability to do the sort of damage he did."
Remington thought about this, then asked, "I am curious about one thing. After striking Relena, the Edenite stopped his attack, and just ran off, right?"
When several people nodded, Remington asked, "Why?"
Aelan then answered, "That's something else. None of this makes any sense."
At that moment, Duo stepped aside, and whispered to Noin, "I'm going to check on Heero. He's gotta be taking this pretty hard."
Duo stepped past the nurse that was stationed outside the ICU that Relena was being held in. With a nod, he entered, the first thing entering his vision was Relena herself, and the picture wasn't pretty.
A mass of tubes were sticking out of her skin, most likely serving to fulfill all the functions of her major organs that were damaged during the attack. A long clear mask covered her nose and mouth, forcing her damaged body to breathe. The sight left Duo wondering how much longer they could let this go on.
'If I had only been able to do something, but that monster swatted me away like I was a fly. I just sat there on my ass while Relena was the one trying to do something.' Duo thought as he caught sight of Heero in the corner, looking over Relena. His face showed no emotion, looking almost coldly on Relena. It nearly caused Duo to snap.
"What do you think you're doing?" Duo demanded.
Heero glanced at him quickly, then turned back to looking at Relena. "What do you mean?"
"Look at you!" Duo hissed, "The girl you were going to marry is sitting here dying, and you're looking at her like you're pissed you weren't the one to beat her senseless! Why are you so cold?"
"People show emotion in different ways, Duo."
"You don't show emotion at all, you asshole." Duo sneered. Duo could put up with Heero's antics most of the time, but this was too much, "Give it up, and drop the damn 'I'm above any pain' routine."
Heero didn't reply for a moment, then finally ordered, "Get out."
"What?"
"Get out of here. Just leave…"
Duo was about to protest, but then started to catch on. Finally, he said, "I can't do that, Heero. You can't just keep this bottled up. This sort of grief can destroy you. I know that personally."
Duo pulled up another chair, and placed it next to Heero. When the Zero pilot didn't object, Duo said, "Come on, man. You're human just like everyone else. I know you try to pretend you don't feel, but I, hell… EVERYONE here knows that isn't true. Let me assure you that if you don't let it out, you will destroy yourself. I came too close to doing that myself to watch you do it too."
"Go away… Duo…" Heero hissed, but Duo could tell he was starting to crack.
"No."
From there, it was like a giant dam bursting under the pressure of a mighty river. At first, it was a few errant tears, but it quickly erupted into a full-blown ocean of grief. Duo put his hand on Heero's shoulder while Heero cried in misery; the sorrow of a man on the verge of losing everything that mattered…
At that same time, Quatre had arrived, most likely taking an immediate flight from the colonies as soon as he had heard of the attack. He and Remington then listened as they were told all about the damage that the Edenite had done to Relena, and the grim prognosis; that Relena probably wouldn't last to see the next noon.
"You mean to tell me that there isn't any technology on Earth that can save her?" Remington moaned, "Why does this feel like it's all my damn fault?"
Suddenly, Quatre brightened, and said, "There isn't any technology on Earth, but there is on EDEN!"
For a brief moment, there was a flicker of hope that Relena might survive, but Aelan quickly extinguished it before it went out of hand. Looking up from Relena's medical charts that he had taken from the doctor, he said, "What I had said to the Edenite that attacked Relena was quite true. Eden has completely locked itself away from the rest of the known galaxy. I couldn't contact them if I tried. Even if I could, it is highly unlikely that they would help the man that destroyed their home."
"What about you?" Noin asked hopefully, "Surely you know something in that mind of yours…"
Aelan then shook his head, answering, "My knowledge of the medical field, while quite extensive in Terran terms, is severely lacking in the skills necessary to spare Relena's life."
As Noin slouched back in despair, a strangely familiar voice stated, "It sounds to me like you need the help of an Edenite medical technician."
Aelan's eyes nearly jumped out of his head as he instantly recognized the voice. "No way…" Aelan half gasped, and half-hissed. The group jumped to their feet, and turned in the direction of the voice.
Standing at the entry of the waiting room, facing them with a slight smirk on his face, was the last person any of them expected to see in this existence;
Kiron Gorrs.
Kiron, in the flesh, quite alive, but apparently, not unscathed. As he walked to them, he seemed to walk with a slight limp, his face grimacing in pain with each step he took with his left foot. "How did you…"
"It amazing how people can't seem to recognize you when they think you're dead." Kiron mused, "As to how I survived, that can be discussed later. As I understand, your little foreign minister is in dire straights."
"That's right. Why would you want to help us?" Aelan asked suspiciously.
"Because I need you to do something for me, Aelan."
Noin was about to reject him, when Aelan put up his hand, and asked, "What is it you need?"
Kiron flushed slightly, then looked down at his leg, and said sheepishly, "My cybernetic leg is acting up, and I'm not sure how to repair it. I fix Relena, you fix my leg. How about it?"
Aelan was sure that Kiron had some other scheme in mind, but he decided he could deal with that later. "Fine. I'll do what I can AFTER Relena recovers."
"All right. Deal." Kiron then grabbed Relena's charts from Aelan. His eyes scanned the sheets, and the former tenant frowned, "Gee, you didn't give me much to work with, did you?"
Kiron then glanced over to the ICU, and said, "Are there any stasis tubes available?"
Aelan shook his head, and said, "Unfortunately, Terran technology isn't quite at that level yet."
Remington then stepped in, exclaiming, "WAIT! The stasis tube that Edenite came in is still intact. It's obviously old, but it was working when I found it."
Kiron then nodded, and said, "How long will it take to get it here?"
Aelan suddenly pulled out his comm-unit, and starting typing in numbers. As he put the device to his ear, he stated, "No more than a couple of hours… Yes, Amore? I need you to do me a little favor…"
Hours later…
As night passed on New Richmond, Kiron looked intently at the progress monitors. Since the stasis tube was quite antiquated, it was going to take much longer than it would on one of the modern models used by Eden. However, so far everything was going well.
Kiron had worried that the fetus would pose some problems, but even the young life growing in Relena's womb was responding beautifully to the process. As Kiron turned away to sit down, he noticed Heero STILL standing in the same corner that he had taken position in when Relena was placed in the stasis tube.
"Do you plan to stand there all night?" Kiron asked.
Heero glared, then answered, "As long as it takes to ensure that you do no harm to Relena. I trust you about as far as I can throw you."
"Don't you think that if I wanted the young lady harmed, I would have just done nothing and let her die?"
Heero didn't seem at all convinced, "I will never be totally sure what twisted schemes that warped mind could be concocting."
Kiron then nodded, and replied, "That's a good attitude to have. I can't be too sure of myself nowadays."
Aelan then appeared in the ward, a few tools in hand. "I'm surprised to hear you say that, Kiron. Such talk to a mere mortal is not fitting for a god…" He said sarcastically.
Kiron held up his hand, and replied as Aelan approached, "Please, I've given up on that illusion, trust me. What sort of God has to rely on a cybernetic leg?" On cue, Aelan lifted the leg in question, a small panel appearing in the synthetic skin, and pulling away, revealing a mass of processor chips and wires.
While Aelan tinkered with the piece of grafted technology, Kiron continued, "It seems like a lifetime ago. I'm not even sure what I was thinking during my rampage."
"How did you survive Kiron?" Aelan asked.
Kiron sighed, then answered, "The fold that you saw me heading for was merely one fold. The other appeared in the cockpit of my suit. I had decided to try and fool anybody trying to follow me, thinking I could always pick up my suit later, if not get a new one."
Looking down at his leg, he continued, "However, the power of that Matter Cannon took me off guard. I had been convinced that my suit's hull would be able to withstand the blast long enough for my escape. Perhaps my suit had been affected by the sonic barrage you used after all, Aelan. By the way, I want to congratulate you for that idea, Aelan. It really put the battle on an even keel."
Aelan chuckled, and replied, "That wasn't even my idea. It was Admiral Noin and Sally Po's."
At that, Kiron began to laugh, "Go figure… the race that I held as so inferior was the one that delivered the most crushing blow to my plans. Just goes to show how flawed my logic was."
Aelan marveled at the detail in the cybernetic leg that Kiron was wielding, and decided to change the subject. "Did you make this?"
"No. Ventrali, my brother, did. He was waiting for me at my secret base, and when I emerged from the fold, I discovered that everything from the knees down had been vaporized by the blast."
"The right leg is cybernetic, too?"
Kiron nodded, "That one's doing fine, though. Actually, this brings up why I'm here. Ventrali suddenly disappeared. Obviously, he didn't like the fact that I was calling it quits. Evidence suggested that he came here to Earth, so I followed him."
"Found it!" Aelan exclaimed, suddenly adjusting a processor on the leg panel, "It was actually quite simple, Kiron. The nerve sensitivity had been skewed far too high."
"Thank you." Kiron answered, "Once I'm done here. I'll be out of your hair. I have to find my brother, and figure out what he's up to."
Heero then stepped in, "You aren't doing anything, not unless we are involved. Hearing what you just said now makes me think that your brother coming to Earth, and the Edenite that attacked Relena, are related somehow. I want to find that monster that hurt her."
Aelan agreed, "Perhaps it is best for us to pool our resources for now. Besides, like Heero, I don't trust you for one second. If you think I'm going to let you run around unchecked, you're nuts."
"Careful, Aelan." Kiron warned, "Remember… I just could be…"
Next Time…
Kiron reveals some horrific truths about Eden, and some of the supposedly harmless projects that his brother Ventrali had undertaken. Also, Kiron takes Aelan to his secret base, where Kiron had discovered several supposedly lost records of the time before the coming of Eden's New Age. The pair search for a solution to Ventrali's plan. Meanwhile, Ventrali makes the next move, unveiling a powerful enemy that not even the Gundams can keep at bay.
Coming in Episode 17: A Bloody History