A Gundam Wing Fanfic: Twilight's End
by Celestialmew
Disclaimer: I recieve no money or profit of any kind by this endeavor except the satisfaction of writing. All Gundam Wing trademarks belong to their respective owners. (You lucky persons, you...) Suing a poor, starving artist will not be in your best interest, and make you unpopular. My work may be distributed as long as my name and email address (sorka318@aol.com) is included.
Author's note: Kudos to my readers and my boyfriend for their support! In the tradional fashion of Gundam Wing, viewpoints will be meshed together, subtle, and confusing. A note to the reader, they all occur in a progressive order. History for this fanfic is taken from tidbits of various Gundam series, the Episode Zero manga, the Gundam Wing series, and Endless Waltz.
CHAPTER TWO
Heero grabbed Relena's hand, and pulled her to her feet quickly. She just barely got a glimpse of people running around outside before his fingers flew across the control panel for the room. The doors snapped shut again, and the porthole cover slammed down. There was another explosion, and another, growing fainter each time.
Heero flipped his laptop on, and typed madly. After a few seconds, there was an answering beep and Duo's alarmed face came on. Workers were running out of the building behind him.
"What is happen - " he began. A blaring siren cut off the rest of his words.
"Life support systems are failing. Evacuation procedures are recommended. Do not panic. Repeat: do not panic. All workers report to stations for systems check and repairs," a monotone voice announced over the intercom.
"That will take too long," Heero said, half to himself. Relena stood forgotten behind him until she tapped him on the shoulder.
"Do you know what's going on?" she demanded.
"No. Only suspicions," he answered. "Relena, we're getting out of here now."
He cut the connection, off and grabbed his pack out from under the bed. He put the laptop in it, and left the room quickly out the doors. Relena followed. Even as they emerged onto the street, another deep boom shook the colony. The explosion sounded too close for comfort.
He dashed through the crowd, and followed where the majority of the people were heading. Relena struggled to keep up with him, and keep him in sight. Heero ducked into a narrow passage and down a flight of stairs. A siren began blaring rather belatedly.
"Where are we going?" she cried over the din.
He shook his head, ignoring the question and continued in his journey. The siren's noise died away as they went through a secluded section of corriders. Heero led the way, following the map in his head. Their destination was soon revealed as the entrance to docking bay.
Only a few other people were there yet, and unloading into escape pods. He choose one on the far left, and hustled them both into it. The engine came to life with a hum.
"Hey!" a porter protested, noticing them.
Too late. The small vessel shot out into space. Relena just managed to get her restraints on before being slammed backward against the seat. Heero barely seemed to notice the motion. He pointed with a free hand to his left, his face showing no emotion.
The L3 colony was repeatedly impacting with their L2 colony, grinding against it. The problem was, that was completely impossible. The colonys' orbit was calculated to never allow a collision.
"They bypassed the ban on weapons by using the impulse engines to manuever it minutely," he stated simply.
"Wouldn't someone have noticed?" she said, horrified, "Why would anyone want to do that?"
Heero continued on. "I'm estimating it's sabotage. There were projects in action some people wouldn't approve of."
She made a quiet noise of agreement, and stared out through the glass. Her eyes spoke that she was disturbed inside. Relena upheld the belief peace and goodwill could be achieved... but it was tried upon again and again.
Heero spared her a glance. He refused to let the destruction touch him anymore, but she differed from him in that. His attention was back on his piloting within a few moments.
"I left the teddybear on my nightstand..." she said sadly.
He dropped his head for a moment, but didn't reply. There was nothing that he could think of to say.
The small spacecraft hurtled on, unnoticed. The moon was just beginning to be illuminated by the sunlight, and the cities of Earth twinkled in the darkness that covered half of it. The colonies were still locked together, sparks glowing brightly and dying away in a wink of light.
A boy laid stetched on the sand, his hands folded together behind his head. The desert was quiet and cool, but the chill barely touched him. He was appreciating the remarkably clear view of the night sky.
Quatre yawned, and put a hand over his mouth wearily to stifle it. He had a feeling of excitement, of danger, of expectation like the kind he used to got before a battle. He was looking at the sliver of moon that dared show itself in a sea of stars.
His eyes were draw to a strange twinkling slightly south of it. It was too long-lived to be a meteor, and he couldn't recall any twinkling, binary stars in that area. The atmosphere was too clear right now to be the cause of it either.
Quatre closed his eyes for a long time. His feeling of something to happen increased and got an edge to it. It was a warning that screamed itself in the back of his mind, like the warning brush of a lethal strike. But no - it must be a false alarm.
What enemies could there be out here in the desert now? Peace reigned, and he had an unusually acute perception for attacks.
He sighed. He hated a puzzle he couldn't solve. Quatre sat up, and rubbed his hands together vigorously. It was time to head back to the his house.
He walked there slowly. Two of his sisters, Iria and Yasine, lived with him there. He came to the well-sized mansion, and knocked once politely. He entered and shut the door quietly. Likely, Yasine was asleep. She was but ten and slept lightly.
Iria greeted him with a mildly chiding look. She patted his shoulder and urged him into the living room where two warm cups of tea were already set out. She took up one and he gladly took up the other.
"Thanks," he said with a smile.
"No problem," she replied, "I knew you'd be back when it started getting colder outside so I made some tea."
Quatre nodded. He was rather silent tonight, but couldn't place what was on his mind. He finished his tea, gave his sister a hug, and stood up from the floor. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," she said back.
Yet after he retired, he slept fitfully and his dreams were full of strange images and nightmarish. He awoke several times, sweating, only to fall back asleep again despite his best efforts.
"Watch out, Duo!" Hilde cried, shoving him against the wall just in time. A falling support barely missed them. Other people were not so lucky. She panted through her respirator.
"Let's keep moving," he said, trying not to show how shaken he was. That building support could have easily killed both of them.
They and a few other fellow workers were making their way through the crowd. They had abandoned their stations by now: saving the colony was a hopeless cause. Duo suffered a pang of emotion. He had fought for these people only to see them slowly being slaughtered again.
Through the portholes, the bulk of L3 ramming and grinding against L2 could be seen. The scraping and fracturing of metal could be heard through screams, sirens, and the creaking of a failing hull.
Duo and Hilde were headed toward the nearest docking bay along with possibly every other person still moving. There would be enough escape pods. Looking around at the wounded, he had no doubt of that. His own breath was sustained by a respirator.
They managed to weasel through an anxious line of people waiting to board an escape pod. They were finally crammed into one of the small vessels along with many other passengers. Both Hilde and Duo took one last sorrowful look at L2 as they left. It had been their home.
"So many people will die," Hilde said sadly.
"Damn!" Duo swore softly, looking on at L3. Escape pods could be seen flying out of docking bays there too. "I would just like to know how this happened."
"So would I," chimed in a fellow worker. Several other people nodded morosely. Most were too stunned to react, and didn't appear to be listening. Their lives had been turned inside out.
The pod took off after a few minutes, heading back toward earth. Even though the small spacecraft was packed with people, there wasn't much in the way of conversation. Duo slipped his hand into Hilde's to give her some small comfort as they headed back toward Earth.
A scared child made her way toward them. She didn't seem to have any parents, and her soulful eyes found the couple. She sat at their feet. Duo picked up the girl purposefully and put her between them. His parents had been killed when he was young too. No words were said; none were needed.
On the L3, chaos reigned as it had on its sister colony. People ran back and forth, and the cracks in the hull were visible. There was the high-pitched hiss of air leaking out slowly. A few people had remembered to grab their respirators or thought to get into spacesuits.
In the midst of the crowd, back in a dark passageway, a scared scientist was cornered by two rather unhappy-looking other scientists.
"I didn't know! Honest, I had no idea what had been going on!" the boy protested, his eyes large.
"For two weeks..." a female scientist added skeptically. "Come on! You were supervisor of the cislunar orbital path!"
"Look, I-I thought the errors were only minor. Those technicians seemed real," he said.
"Yet no one noticed?" interjected the other male scientist harshly.
"Tres, let's just get out of here," the woman said worriedly, "I know he's behind it, but we're living on borrowed time. We can turn him in to the authorities later."
"You're rig - "
The man stiffened and collapsed, coughing. Blood was on his lips. The other scientist followed within seconds after she screamed. The sound wasn't noticed. The boy with dark green eyes knelt near them. His white labcoat was immaculate, not a stain on it.
"I'm so sorry," the boy whispered to them, regret in his voice, "but they'd kill me if you told. I don't want to die."
He dropped with the knife with a sob, and ran out of the alley. His mind was frozen at what he had done. He doffed his labcoat and looked around at the street. He took off a fallen man's fezz and put it on, keeping his head low to escape notice.
He managed to make it to an escape pod, and hunched down in the people around him. He was claustrophobic, and afraid of recognition among these refugees. His scared and haunted eyes tracked the L3.
Oh, god, I hope they don't find me... no one will notice a few more dead bodies in all that anyway, no one will know I was involved... his thoughts were like those of a terrified bird. What a mess you've gotten yourself into this time.
The young scientist's thoughts were still on the colony even as it dwindled in size and eventually faded out of sight.
Quatre was staring blankly into the darkness, unable to sleep again. His door opened suddenly, and the light flicked on. He shielded his eyes.
"Quatre!" Iria exclaimed softly, her voice excited, "Quick, come see what's all over the news!"
"What is it?" he asked drowsily, that feeling in his mind getting stronger.
"Two of the colonies crashed together! L2 and L3! No one knows why," she said, pulling him out of bed by his hand.
His heart stopped for a moment. Heero and Duo were up there. They weren't close friends, but they kept in touch occasionally, kept together by a bond wrought in war. He wondered if they were alright.
Quatre got out of bed quickly and walked into the living room. The TV showed the sight of the two colonies, debris and sparks everywhere. The voice of a reporter droned on in the background.
"At 11:30 Earth time, 5:45 Colony time, and 12:30 Lunar time, L2 and L3 collided with each other. The damage is heavy, and casualities are unknown at this time. Escape pods have been seen exitting from both colonies. Stay tuned for more information..."
He stood there, with Iria nearby, watching the sattellite pictures flash across the screen. He sat down dully on the couch, praying his friends and all those people would be safe, even knowing in his heart not everyone would be saved. He felt partly responsible for it all.
Quatre couldn't shake the feeling this was only the tip of the iceberg though, the start of something much larger again. He rested his head in his hands. Iria patted his back comfortingly. She understood the devastation he felt at seeing the colonies in the midst of destruction again after years of peace.
"This doesn't feel right..." he said, his eyes on something unseen miles away. She could only nod in agreement.
It was early dawn across the desert. The sun shone brilliantly off the white sands, and the sunrise merged wit the horizon in the distance.
A compact car rode up across the sands, leaving a cloud behind it. It stopped near the house, and a traveler stepped out.
"Thanks," he said softly, handing over some money. The driver nodded and rode off.
The boy walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. A young girl of ten answered the door after a few moments. They stared at each other. The child was both suspicious and curious; they didn't get many visitors.
"Is Quatre here?" he asked.
The little girl nodded. "Yes." She closed the door partly, inhaled, and shouted, "Quatre! It's for you!"
The door opened again, revealing the slightly breathless blonde Arabic. Blue eyes met that gaze of the visitor, showing surprise. "Trowa! It's been months since you've visited."
"Yeah," he agreed, "It's a long way out here."
He stepped inside. Quatre led him to the living room. Iria and Yasine hovered at the edge of the room, trying not to be too obvious about their intrusion. Trowa's eyes passed over them.
"Can we talk alone?" he asked quietly.
"I guess so," Quatre said, mystified. He gave a pleading look to his sisters. Iria nodded politely, and guided herself and the child away.
Trowa was silent for a moment, and took a seat in a chair facing the couch where Quatre sat. He began speaking slowly. "Well, I found out I had a sister a few days ago. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the medical center for a check-up, and the doctor told me of the results of the last DNA test."
"Great," Quatre said with a smile, sipping idly at his tea, "Who is it?"
"It's Catherine," Trowa said, pausing before continuing, "I've never had a sister before, never thought she'd really be my sister."
He nodded. The other boy sounded a little confused and lost. Trowa laughed at himself, and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.
He brought his gaze down again, his humor gone and seriousness falling over his face that was visible. "You heard about that crash of the colonies?"
Quatre nodded again dismally.
Trowa moved his hair slightly with a free hand. He looked uncertain. "I was doing some research on it... and I came across a few things that don't quite add up in my mind."
Blue eyes met enigmatic brown ones. "And?"
"Quatre," he said, his brow furrowed, "have you ever heard of something called a 'newtype'? They're people with advanced ment - "
Quatre choked. The teacup dropped out of shaking hands, spilling its contents onto the floor.
"I know what a newtype is, Trowa!" he snapped. His tone was crisp, even cold. The other boy looked taken aback, the hurt and shock clear on his face. Quatre was the last person he thought would have raised his voice to him.
The blonde boy stood up abruptly. "Maybe it's time you go."
Trowa stared at him and said, "But I have only been here a few minutes."
"Please go," he said softly and firmly. He was still shaking.
The other boy stood up, and backed away. He eventually dropped his head in repudiation and walked out of the house. The door shut with a slam heard through most of the mansion. Quatre winced at the loud noise. His heart felt heavy suddenly.
He had known without turning around he had had an eavesdropper through most of the conversation. She couldn't disguise her nervous breathing and shifting. He met that gaze slowly. What he saw shook him even worse. Fear. Angst.
"Don't look at me like that, Iria," he asked quietly. His sister licked her lips nervously, and left the room.
The house suddenly seemed very silent and very lonely. Quatre hit the wall with his fist, sinking against it in despair, finding himself trapped in a web of his own making. He closed his eyes, fighting back tears.
He always managed to mangle things...
To be continued...