Gundam Wing: Vengeance

Gundam Wing: Vengeance

Part V

By Shawn Gealow (wing_zero_pilot)

son_of_vegeta@hotmail.com

www.geocities.com/wing_zero_pilot195

Hello. It's me again.

Well, as it turned out, I will have to finish off the Vengeance saga in a fifth chapter! Five just seems like a nice, round number to me. This will be the FINAL CHAPTER in the Gundam Wing: Vengeance saga. I know, I know . . . I'm sad, too. This one will be much longer than the others, so be sure to make some popcorn or something before reading this final chapter!

The reviews still aren't really coming in too fast. I only got two reviews on my last chapter, and those were from people who have been reviewing my work from the start! C'MON PEOPLE! REVIEW THE WORK! I put way too much time and effort into this stuff for it to be ignored! PLEASE REVIEW IT!

Anyhow, this is the ending chapter for those not paying attention. Secrets will be revealed that will certainly surprise you and give you new thoughts about our "friend", Two. Perhaps his identity will come out into the open!

Sorry this one took so long to release. I know it's been a while, but homework, housework, and constantly working on my webpage has kept me kind of busy! I'm only a junior in high school, and I'm in all the tough classes, so homework takes up most of my life right now! Anyhow, about my site, I've got some GW animated GIFs up (I'm working on ones for the Vengeance and Tallgeese IV right now!) and I'll be starting up my own fanfiction sections, so be sure to submit your stories to my site! (Please visit the site first, so you know the various stipulations to submitting a fanfic. It's under the Misc. Gundam Wing Section)

On with the story!

************************************************************************

Outside Colony L1

After Colony (A.C.) 189

There he is! Two's adrenaline raced through his veins as he saw the outline of an impossibly-fast mobile suit in more of a jet-shape configuration speeding towards him. It has to be! Nobody else from the secret training camp would dare to come out and fight me!

After stealing a prototype of the Wing Gundam, Two had escaped. Gathering weapons that were used by mobile suits, he had hastily grafted them onto the prototype's outer skin. Had the prototype been made of Gundanium alloy, such welding would have been nearly impossible, but the prototype had been made of a strange titanium-like metal.

Must have been that Neo Titanium the old fool was babbling on about. Two smiled, thinking of Doctor J's idiotic glee at finding a large deposit of the so-called "Neo Titanium" metal in a rogue asteroid.

He said the use of such a metal wouldn't be for another half-decade. He must have meant the outside world, the Earth Sphere Alliance. His grey eyes flashing fire, even such a casual mentioning of the phrase "Earth Sphere Alliance" sent pure rage seething through his veins.

It is because of that "government" that my parents died without justification. Without revenge! Keying on the poorly-constructed weapons-control panel he had added to the cockpit with a smashing finger, he growled to himself in anger.

I will make up for the Sphere's lack of justice! I will have my revenge!

"Two, this is One. Do you copy?" A flat, monotone voice came out of the boy's mouth. Not feeling a hint of anger or vengeance, but instead hinting on the edge of mild annoyance, the boy repeated himself. "Two, respond. This is One. Do you copy?"

"What do you want?" the voice from the speaker barked back at him. The pure anger and hatred in the voice was practically palpable.

"Doctor J and the others want me to try and bring you in alive, but, if I have to, I will be forced to--"

"To what, One? Kill me?" The voice responded with pure, unadulterated sarcasm and feigned innocence.

Nodding, the youth responded, "Those were his orders."

"Oh, please! I'd like to see you try! Then again, I doubt you can even reach the control yokes at your feet!"

What a pitiful attempt to get me angry. All he's doing is saying that he's taller than I am. We both know that, so why is he trying to anger me?

Dodging a blazing yellow beam fired straight at his Gundam's cockpit area, the answer hit him like a mobile suit transport.

He wants me angry so I'll take stupid risks and get myself killed. He knows that my suit is more powerful, durable, and maneuverable than his, so he's trying to make up for it by getting me to make mistakes.

Too bad for him.

Purposefully maneuvering his Gundam past Two's suit, One used the lateral thrusters to spin himself around a full 180, hauling forward on a lever to his right as he did so. During the maneuver, the Gundam changed from a plane-like form to the familiar mobile suit shape seen throughout the Earth Sphere.

"You can't win, Two. You must see that," One said in his maddeningly-calm voice, though he made sure to add more force to it than the "conversational" tone he used before. "Your suit's power is no match for this Gundam's."

"I will win because I have to win!" Two's voice responded, with an equal amount of bitterness and, strangely enough, desperation. "You don't know what would have happened to me if I stayed! What they would have done to me!" Using his own lateral thrusters, Two's suit spun around to meet the business end of the Wing Gundam's buster rifle.

As the two suits stayed there, locked in seemingly-eternal checkmate, One's voice came back to Two, this time in more of a personal, pitying tone.

"Yes, I do. I also hacked into Doctor J's personal files. I know all about Operation Meteor. I know the identities of the other pilot candidates. The ones who died. Yours, however, I could not find. But, yes, I do know what the plan was with the other candidates. I do know what was going to happen."

"Then you'll let me go, so I can stop them from executing me."

"They won't execute you, Two. Not anymore. Doctor J changed his mind. You've proven yourself, Two, to them," another voice said over the comm system. It was Burke, the chief trainer at the camp. "You've shown yourself to be a superior pilot, so you won't be killed."

"Then what will happen to me? What will you do to me? I already know you consider me a security risk." Two's voice carried a slight bit of hope in it, though the hatred still remained.

"We'll have to discuss that later. For now, you'll have to come back. Please come back to the facility. We'll etch out the details later."

"Let's go back, Two," One's voice resumed control of the comm system. "You heard them. You won't die."

Suddenly, the arm of Two's mobile suit lashed out, grabbing the buster rifle away from the Wing Gundam. Holding the gun at One's suit, Two laughed over the comm system. "You will not tell me what to do, One!" Two's voice seethed anger from the speakers. "I will decide for myself if I will come back or not! Whether you go back or not, we'll decide right now."

"What?!"

"This sort of battle has been a long time coming, One! It's time for us to decide which of us should really deserve the number 'One' slot in the pilot's ranks!"

"You were supposed to come back with me, Two! You were ordered--"

"I lied to them! I never had any intention to surrender to you! I truly thought that you wouldn't be fooled so easily, but apparently I was wrong. Too bad for you, though. After I finish killing you, I'll go back to the facility, all right. I'll go back and destroy it!"

As Two's laughter ruled the comm system, One keyed the system off with the quick, angry swipe of his index finger. The switch, which wasn't built to take a lot of punishment, flew to the ground, broken.

So much the better. At least I don't have to listen to Two's idiotic tricks anymore.

Switching his Vulcan gun system on, One scolded himself for being so foolish.

I should have known better. I should have known not to trust people. Well, after this fight, that habit will be corrected, one way or another!

Pressing the FIRE buttons on his control sticks, One maneuvered to the right of Two's suit, taking himself out of the firing crosshairs of his own buster rifle. As he maneuvered, the suit brought its arm up, taking a beam saber out of its shield. Igniting it, he slashed down, expecting the arm of Two's suit to go flying away. Unfortunately, all that was accomplished was knocking the buster rifle out of the suit's hand.

Damn. That suit's armor is stronger than I expected. Another lesson learned.

As the prototype brought a basic beam rifle to bear on the Wing Gundam, One shook his head.

Even he should know better than that. A basic beam rifle will have no more effect on this Gundam than throwing rocks at it.

One soon had to eat those words, as the blasts rocked his mobile suit.

Underestimated him again. Dammit!

Finally losing his temper, One let loose with a series of complicated maneuvers, bringing himself closer to Two's suit, until they were practically eye-to-eye. As Two attempted to scare One away with a flurry of blasts from his modified beam rifle, One countered with a horizontal slash that cut the barrel in half, leaving only a smoking stump.

Tossing the useless weapon aside before it exploded from a feedback overload, Two brought a dober gun that was cleverly hidden amongst his Vernier engines to bear on the Gundam. Firing one round, Two's aim was dead-on as it his the Gundam directly in its head.

Dammit! The Vulcans are off-line. Then again, most of the head's structure is gone, so it's no real surprise there! One thought to himself with grim humor.

Two more shots eliminated the shield attached to the Gundam's left arm, leaving only a floating, glowing cloud of Gundanium debris. Another shot destroyed the beam saber that the suit was holding in its left hand, along with the entire hand itself.

He knows exactly how powerful a blast needs to be to destroy Gundanium, and exactly where to shoot to kill me. I have do eliminate him now!

Maneuvering left and right, One shot his suit past Two's. Two's suit took a short amount of time to get a target lock on the Gundam again, but that short time was enough for One to grab what he needed to win this fight.

"Dammit!" Two shouted as he saw what he was targeting.

The business end of One's buster rifle.

Imagining how the rifle's single blast would shred through his suit like so much vapor, Two fired up his modified Vernier engines, shooting away from the Gundam's aim.

I have to get out of that rifle's range before he shoots!

In the end, it would have seemed like a very close race. In the time it took One to establish a clean lock on Two's suit, Two had almost reached the outer edge of the buster rifle's range.

Unfortunately for Two, he didn't make it in time.

The golden beam sheared through the lower structure of the Gundam prototype, taking the waist, legs, and one hand out of the picture. Even though the suit was almost entirely made up of Neo Titanium, the metal choice didn't make a single bit of difference. In the end, the resulting explosion was the same.

Fire engulfed the suit, destroying everything attached to the outer hull, followed by the outer hull itself.

One watched the explosion, feeling a twinge of envy for Two.

I hope that, when I die, it's that fast. Dying of old age is more of a form of torture than life.

Turning his suit back to the colony, One used his fingernail to flip the broken switch on the comm system.

"This is One. Mission accomplished."

************************************************************************

A.C. 204

Former Sanc Kingdom Capitol Newport City

Evening

"Well, Heero! How are the repairs coming along?" Howard asked cheerfully as he walked by the Wing Zero in the primary repair bay.

After waiting for Heero to reply for a solid minute-and-a-half, Howard sighed loudly. Shaking his head at the young man busy welding armor plates to his suit, he walked back to the cafeteria. He smiled when he saw Duo, Trowa, and Quatre all sitting down at a table. Dorothy leaned over Quatre's back, asking him something in a whisper. He smiled and nodded, thanking her. She got up and went toward the nearest food bar, preparing two plates of food. Both of them seemed more cheerful than ever.

"Hey guys. How are your suits doing?" he asked them all. Duo frowned at the question. Quatre smiled. Trowa's face seemed to refuse to take any expression at all.

"Well, considering the fact that we didn't get into any real action at all so far, they're as good as they were when they were rebuilt," Quatre answered.

"Yeah, no kiddin'," Duo added, looking glumly into his cup of coffee. "Wish he had sent down some of those dolls for me to play with."

"Duo! You shouldn't say that!" Hilde scolded as she walked up from the food bar. Sitting down, she frowned. "He thinks that just because he destroyed those Vayeate and Mercurius mobile dolls makes him better than everything that can pilot a mobile suit."

"And just who was it that I was saving . . . OW!" Duo's ripose was cut short as Hilde stomped her heel down on Duo's toes.

She smiled sweetly at him and the others, as though nothing had happened.

"Duo, I've seen the recordings on those new mobile dolls. Save for Two and Heero, those things are faster and more powerful than any mobile suit I've ever seen." Howard looked up from the coffee machine where he was standing. "We're gonna have to tinker around with your suits again if you want to stand a chance. I know we were ordered to stay out of Heero and Two's cross ways, but we have to do something!"

"I agree," Trowa piped up.

"Same here. Too bad we'll have to go behind Miss Relena's back on this one," Quatre agreed.

"Just when I had my suit back the way I liked it . . ." Duo said morosely. After taking another sip from his coffee cup, he smiled. "Strange, isn't it?"

"What?" Trowa said, looking up from his tray of food.

"Here we go again, about to fight a more powerful breed of mobile suits. And what do we need to do? Modify ours again to compensate!"

"Duo, if we didn't have the modifications to our mobile suits, OZ would still be in power and most, if not all, of us would be dead." Howard looked over at Duo, reigning him in from the train of thought he was taking. "You would have never met Hilde, since she would still have been in OZ's space forces. Treize would still be alive. Need I continue?"

"Nah, you're right. I like my ol' buddy just the way he is, though. Too bad I have to go and mess around with his insides again. You know, that last batch of modifications almost killed me?"

"And how did they, or should I say you, manage that one?" Howard asked critically.

"Well, that oversized beam scissors I had made myself? Well, it mostly ran off of power from the central power generator in my suit. As long as my suit held onto it, the beam could work. Unfortunately, this drew a lot of power to use. So, here I am, in the middle of Brussels, fighting a few dozen Serpents on my own, and the power grid in my suit fries! It was pretty much overheated from the stresses I put onto it, running the beam scissors for so long. It took me the better part of two minutes to get it restarted without climbing outside of my suit, which would have gotten me killed."

"Well," Howard responded, "that'll teach you to make modifications without me there to supervise you!"

************************************************************************

Space

Small Mobile Suit Space Transport

Approaching Earth

"Do you think we'll make it there on time, Zechs?" Noin asked for the third time in the last hour. She was getting increasingly nervous, worried about what would happen if they were too late.

Zechs, who was incapable of getting annoyed by such a trivial thing, simply smiled through his long, platinum-blond hair.

"I hope so, Lu. I truly hope so."

As Lucrezia went back to double-check the status on the two mobile suits they were transporting, Zechs double-checked some things of his own.

Dammit. If the Gundam pilots start a battle as soon as I think they will, we won't make it in time. There's only one other option we have.

Keying on the ship's intercom system, he spoke into the small handset that was attached to the control board.

"Lu, we aren't going to make it on time in this sluggish shuttle." After waiting for her to get to a intercom console, he spoke again. "We may have to abandon the shuttle and proceed in our suits."

"But Zechs, that'll take up too much fuel that, frankly, we don't have."

"I know, I know." Frowning, he thought as quickly as he could of places that could refuel their suits after they approached the Earth. "Unfortunately, we're out of options right now."

Slamming a fist down on the arm of his chair, he gritted his teeth.

"After all we've gone through, after all we've fought for . . ." he growled, more to himself than Noin. "The Alliance, OZ, White Fang . . . That's it!"

"What is it Zechs?" Noin's voice came back, surprised at his exclamation.

Why didn't I think of that before?! "There's an old White Fang resupply depot near the old Lunar Base that I left the Epyon in after the Eve Wars. It has enough fuel and parts to supply a thousand mobile suits."

"Feed me the coordinates so I can program them into both of our suits."

"Transmitting now." Reaching down to press a series of buttons on another panel, Zechs smiled.

Looks like we may be able to help Earth, after all.

************************************************************************

Newport City

As Heero climbed up into the Wing Zero's cockpit, he looked back down to where Relena stood diligently, at the feet of the suit.

"Don't leave me waiting again," she had said to him as he grabbed ahold of the tether that lifted him up to the cockpit. "Come back in one piece."

"I will," he had responded. A tight ball had wormed its way into Heero's stomach. He wasn't quite sure how to define it, but he had felt a sudden urge to stay in Newport City with Relena. His sense of judgement and responsibility had overridden that urge.

I must complete this last mission. Then, and only then, can I come back here.

Only then . . .

Now, as he looked back to her, he could faintly see her shimmering, golden-brown hair blowing to the side in the wind. Although he had once promised to kill her, he once again found himself feeling the impulse to protect her, even if it meant sacrificing his own life to save hers.

After throwing a mild salute back to the small crowd watching him lift off and starting up the suit, did the ZERO system start to bring up various thoughts that had once crossed his mind.

I know it can't be love. I was supposed to kill her. It couldn't possibly be love.

Could it?

"Damn system," Heero said out loud to himself. I will find out for myself what it is that I'm feeling. I won't have a damn computer system telling me about my emotions.

Hauling back on a lever in front of him, he changed the mobile suit from its humanoid form to its Neo Bird Mode, giving it a boost off into the sky.

I will finish off Two and his dolls. After that, I will come back.

I promise you, Relena. I will come back.

************************************************************************

Moon

Former OZ Lunar Base

Yes, One. Say your good-byes now, while you still can.

Two stood by the communications console, receiving the news broadcast of the "brave young man who won the Eve Wars, defeated Mariemaia's army, and brought peace to the Earth Sphere" get into his mobile suit to go and "kill the bad guys."

The bad guys being me and my ZERO dolls. Oh, well. It's time the people of Earth learned that the bad guys can win, too.

Walking back through the halls of the Lunar Base, Two felt something like a swell of pride rise up in him as he walked past the room where all the ZERO doll primary control systems were. He himself had designed the system, taking what he knew about mobile dolls and the advanced ZERO system, extensively modifying them both so that they would be compatible with each other. It had taken him the better part of four years to finish the systems. The mobile dolls that were left over from the Eve Wars and the whole Mariemaia incident had been thought to have been destroyed, but the destruction of the Lunar Base had not been as complete as was thought.

Instead, there were many underground levels that only Treize himself could access. They were armored heavy enough that they survived the rest of the base's destruction. The destruction, however, also opened these chambers up to whoever could find them.

When Two had found the wreck of the Wing Gundam, he had stolen an abandoned mobile suit space carrier, launching up to the Lunar Base. He had known that it had been destroyed, but he didn't care. If he had to, he would have waited even longer for his revenge just to build up a few pressurized rooms to rebuild the suit.

It was a gift from whatever gods may exist that the databanks and lower levels of the base were mostly intact. If they weren't, I would have had to wait a few more years to exact my revenge. It was almost as great as finding the mobile dolls and the Epyon wreckage.

Smiling to himself, he opened the door to the makeshift hangar bay where he kept his beloved Wing Vengeance. As the lights turned on two at a time, first at the feet and leading up to the head of the suit, Two began to laugh.

And that foolish Doctor J thought that One would be the only one to ever pilot this suit!

I will show them what happens to those who get in my way!

************************************************************************

Newport City

"C'mon, guys! We've got to finish up these upgrades!" Duo shouted to the overly large group of technicians crawling about the Deathscythe Hell.

"Sir, with the modifications we're making, it'll take at least another hour to finish!" the senior tech's peeking head replied from behind the rear left wing of the suit.

Sighing to himself, Duo walked over to Trowa's mobile suit, which was also being refitted at the time.

"Well, how's yours coming, Trowa?" Duo shouted up to the pilot in the Gundam's cockpit.

Looking down to where his fellow Gundam pilot was standing, Trowa replied in a quieter tone, "I've almost completed the final modifications to the Heavyarms. The engine upgrades and weapons modifications will be much more advanced than before."

"Who was helping you out with that stuff?"

"No one. I did the work myself."

After Duo's jaw regained its ability to rise, he spoke. "What?!?! If you did that the same way Heero repaired his Gundam the first time we met, I'm gonna . . ." Stressed out too far, Duo put a leaning hand against Heavyarms' foot structure.

"No. I know better than that," Trowa replied as the cord near the cockpit brought him down to ground level. "I know my suit better than anyone else. Remember, I helped build it, both times."

"Oh, yeah. I remember. Well, it'll take another hour for the crews to finish my upgrades, so I figured I'd grab a bite to eat while I'm waiting."

"You're not worried about something going wrong with the upgrades? You're sure you don't want to supervise?" Trowa's single showing eye, since the other was covered by his hair, gazed into Duo.

"Hey, can't go into battle on an empty stomach, can we? C'mon. I'll buy."

************************************************************************

A Small Distance from the Moon

As Wing Zero blasted forward in its Neo Bird Mode, Heero checked his scanners for enemies for the third time in five minutes.

I'm too anxious. I must calm myself if I expect to survive.

Punching a few keys, he was somewhat surprised when he saw a single red dot on his screen.

Another dot appeared.

Then another. One after another, red dots began to swarm around his screen, showing him that he was outnumbered at least fifty to one.

So what? I've been through those kind of odds before he thought, smiling grimly to himself. Hauling back on the lever to his right, he changed the suit to its combat form.

Here's where the battle will begin.

Two smiled to himself as he watched Wing Zero go through several complicated maneuvers, dodging blast after blast, attempting to get to the moon as soon as possible. the image was from one of the many Virgo II ZERO dolls he had made, only with a small camera built into the head structure.

Fool. He can't dodge forever. Eventually, they'll wear him down.

Suddenly, the small image of Wing Zero was replaced by a split-second of golden sheen, followed by static.

Buster rifle. Oh, well. I've seen the specs of Wing Zero. A few more shots and that weapon will be out of the fight.

Putting the buster rifle away, Heero pressed a few more keys on his control panel, as his suit ejected a small cylinder, grabbed it, and ignited the incandescent green blade from one of the ends. Using the beam saber and the Wing Zero's superior maneuverability, Heero made a few of the ZERO dolls into glowing red clouds of debris. The others, however, combined the power of their planetary defensors and forced Heero to abandon the "slice and fly" technique.

Weaving back and forth, Heero spotted a gap in their protective field. Arming his head Vulcans, he made short work of the hapless Virgo that was caught off-guard.

Unfortunately, he paid the price for such an easy kill.

Eight of the ZERO dolls had closed around Heero's suit, each one blasting away with their beam cannons.

The armor can't take this kind of punishment much longer. I have to destroy these things now!

Rearming the buster rifle, Heero fired five quick bursts, overwhelming the defensors protecting most of the dolls. After the golden explosions died down, six more Virgos took the place of the five destroyed ones.

One shot left before the cool-down program takes over. Gotta make this one count!

Aiming the buster rifle at the largest cluster of dolls, Heero pressed the FIRE button, sending a ribbon of pure energy lancing out at the group of mobile suits. It came closer and closer--

And separated into six separate ribbons as the complex network of defensors deflected the powerful blast.

Heero's jaw dropped. That blast was capable of destroying an entire colony! Two must have really outdone himself on those things!

Bowing his head in dismay, he waited for the return fire from the dolls to shred through the structure of his suit, incinerating it and him.

Laughing uncontrollably, Two's eyes began to mist from the pure merriment and joy of watching Wing Zero's blast being intercepted by the advanced defensors he had made from the experimental logs of the five Gundam scientists. The logs were still intact from the old Lunar Base's computer core. Two had helped himself to their developments when he took over the abandoned base.

Using his mentor's own research against One. What could be better?!

Heero sat waiting for a solid ten seconds, before he realized that the shots weren't going to come. He looked at his targeting screen and realized why.

Keying on his comm system, his voice took an extremely annoyed tone.

"I told you to stay on Earth."

From the cockpit of Deathscythe Hell Omega (as it became known), Duo laughed very hard.

"Sorry, pal, but you know you can't get into a fight without us getting involved, too!"

"That's right," Quatre added from his Sandrock Nomad, in front of the suits of the Maganac Corps. "Besides, the odds are a lot slimmer with us fighting by your side, Heero."

"Yes. Quatre is right," Trowa said flatly from the cockpit of Heavyarms.

"Two has committed a crime that cannot be forgiven," Wufei said across the comm from Nataku's cockpit. "Besides, I wanted the pleasure of taking on some of Treize's old toys, too."

"Very well," Heero replied. "Let's put an end to all this."

Blasting forward on their hyper-Verniers, the Gundams loomed like the embodiment of the Apocalypse and his four horsemen in front of the moon's glow.

"Damn fools!" Two shouted as he saw the other Gundams appear on his monitor. "They really think that they can beat me?! Hah! I will show them a new definition of fear!"

Pressing a few buttons, he released all of his ZERO doll troops into combat against the five Gundams and forty Maganac suits. After releasing his toys to fight, he made his way down to the primary hangar and prepped four special suits for launching.

"Here they come!" Quatre said over the comm system as the ZERO dolls poured out of the once-abandoned hangar bays of the Lunar Base. The dolls tended to group together in groups of four, separating themselves by order of suit class.

A full wing of Serpent mobile suits blasted forward, engaging the Gundams and Maganacs.

"This is tense!" Duo said, fighting a few Serpents on his own. The twin blades of his beam scythe sliced one Serpent into two pieces through the waistline, but three more replaced it, firing their gatling guns at Duo. His protective covering came down just in time to intercept their shots, but they managed to disorient Duo somewhat. The Deathscythe's left arm raised up and the buster shield mounted there shot off, tearing holes in two Virgo IIs, but the shield soon became debris under the barrages of incoming Serpents.

Two suits to Duo's right exploded, victims of Wufei's dragon claws. Two long streaks of flame came from his suit a fraction of a second later, destroying another half-dozen Serpents. The green-and-white "tail" of his suit swung up, firing at seven Virgo suits, but most of the shots were deflected by the planetary defensor fields set up. A squadron of Taurus suits came up and fired on Wufei, temporarily stopping his attacks.

Trowa's Heavyarms exchanged fire with a half-dozen armed Virgo IIs, the fight temporarily ending in four explosions and one mildly damaged Gundam. The gatling guns for both arms had been modified so each now had three barrels, and even more rocket launchers had been added to the shoulders and legs. After destroying three more Tauruses, Trowa let loose with the rockets and the five gatling guns hidden in the suit's chest. Most of the rockets found their intended targets, while a good dozen managed to accidentally destroy five other suits. Through the glowing debris of those five suits, eleven Virgo IIs and seven Serpents came through and attacked the unsuspecting Trowa, damaging his suit.

Two Tauruses became glowing balls of flame as Quatre sliced through them with his huge, glowing heat shotels. Just as soon as he had cut through them, he grabbed the modified beam rifle in the back of his suit and shot three Tauruses flying at him, guns blazing. As he was shooting, four Virgos hit him from behind with their beam cannons, cutting his attack short. Rasid's suit started to come to Quatre's aid, but he was intercepted by a half-dozen Tauruses.

The Maganac Corps seemed to hold their own in the battle at first, but as time went on, weariness began to settle into the pilots. Trying to fight for so long was taking a lot out of them, and it was starting to hurt. Whispers of survival were met with a few screams of death over the comm system, as some Maganac soldiers gave their lives to fighting the ZERO dolls.

Heero, for his part, was nothing short of amazing. Using combinations of attacks from his Vulcans, beam saber, and buster rifle, he had already destroyed twenty ZERO dolls, but the attacks were obviously not working as well as he had hoped. Most of his rifle or Vulcan shots weren't penetrating the stronger defensor shields, and the suits he was fighting were keeping their distance from him, preventing any kind of close-range attacks from his beam sabers. Even when he did get up close, the dolls' reactions were just too quick for him to track as well as regular dolls. While he was destroying more suits than everyone else, the pure power was starting to wear off, as each ZERO doll destroyed was replaced with two more.

Somehow, by fate or just plain luck, the dolls had corralled the Gundams and the Maganacs together. With their backs together, most of the pilots began to wonder how in the hell they would get out of there. Ten of the ZERO dolls began to cluster around them, moving in for the kill.

"I'm out of ammunition," Trowa said. "The most I could do is attack them with my combat knife, but they're out of range for that right now."

"Don't try it Trowa," Quatre replied. "I'm all out for my gun, too. How about the rest of you?"

"My flame-throwers are at twenty-five percent capabilities right now, but they need to cool off, so I can't use them yet," Wufei growled.

"My Vulcans are out, and my buster shield got blown to hell, so no long-distance attacks are gonna be from me any time soon," Duo said glumly.

The pilots waited for Heero to say his status, since most of his weapons were long-range. Heero, however, never had the chance to say anything before all ten of the dolls exploded from fire to the upper-right of his targeting screens.

"Looks like you guys could use some help," Noin's voice said over the comm. Her white Taurus suit flew in to meet the Gundams, stopping when it was level with the other suits.

"Miss Noin!" Quatre exclaimed, clearly surprised.

"Is Zechs with you?" Heero's no-nonsense tone cut through the emotional tones of the comm system like a razor.

"Yeah, but he won't be here for a little while longer. We had to stop on the moon to refuel our suits, and his Tallgeese does take up a lot of fuel!" the smiling image of Lucrezia Noin said.

"Be careful. These suits aren't like the mobile dolls you encountered in the Eve Wars. They've been combined with a form of the ZERO system and are much more dangerous," Heero cautioned.

"Don't worry. Looks like you guys managed to take care of most of them yourself. Zechs should be along shortly, so you'll have more backup if you need it."

"Roger," Heero replied.

As the Wing Zero quickly changed to its faster Neo Bird Mode and blasted towards the Lunar Base, Noin's suit looked back at the other Gundams.

"Well, he hasn't changed much."

"No, Miss Noin, he hasn't," Quatre answered. "Uh-oh."

"Yeah, uh-oh," Duo added. "Looks like we've got more ZERO dolls to play with coming here right now. My screens show four suits veering off and heading towards Heero's path!"

"Leave them. I think he can handle them himself," Wufei said, ending all conversation as the ZERO dolls poured out towards them.

Jetting towards the Lunar Base, Heero triple-checked his weapons systems.

A half-dozen shots left for the buster rifle, a few rounds of Vulcan ammunition left, and the power cells for one of the beam sabers is depleted. Gotta make what I've got count.

A loud beeping came from his threat-indicator screen. Jerking the controls to port, he barely missed a powerful blast from near the moon's surface. Glancing at his starboard screen, he saw the figures of three scarlet mobile suits that were vaguely reminiscent of the Virgo line, but had larger cannons, a twin-machine gun mounted between two engines that looked like exact copies of the Tallgeese models', and twice as many planetary defensors. A fourth suit was in a form that was like the Neo Bird Mode the Wing Zero was currently in, but it could easily be identified as the so-called Wing Gundam Vengeance.

So it's been modified so it can fire the buster rifle while in Bird Mode. Clever.

Hauling back on the familiar lever to his right, the pilot changed the suit from its Neo Bird Mode to the combat mode it had taken earlier.

"Hello, One." The pure venom in Two's voice sent a shiver down Heero's spine--a very small shiver, but one nonetheless. "Like what I've done with my time in the past eight years? I call them the Virgo IIIs. You'll find that they're a bit more difficult to destroy than their predecessors."

Aiming his buster rifle, Heero took no time to wait as he fired the powerful weapon at the nearest red mobile suit.

He naturally expected the blast to be deflected by the fields generated by the advanced defensors. That is why he keyed his weapon to send out just enough energy to make it look like a real blast. A fraction of a second after firing, Wing Zero spun down and left, using a clear target behind the single-direction field. Heero used that split-second it took the defensors to move to fire a real blast at the scarlet Virgo.

Heero was speechless when he saw that he had cleanly missed his target.

The pesky Virgo had such quick response time that it had maneuvered out of the way and managed to take advantage of Heero's momentary hesitation to fire its oversized beam cannon.

The blast rocked the suit, vaporizing much of the additional armor Heero had added earlier. The suit itself was mostly intact, but much of the armor was simply gone.

Those cannons are powerful enough to vaporize Gundanium in one shot! I have to take these things out now!

Maneuvering left and right to avoid fire from the three scarlet Virgos, Wing Zero grabbed its second beam saber, igniting the glowing green blade. Weaving in and out of the fields protecting the Virgos, Heero managed to slice through the barrel of one of the attacking suits. The whole weapon exploded, taking half the suit with it. The rest of the ZERO doll blew up soon afterward, showing a drastic weakness to Heero.

"You're a fool, Two," Heero said as he switched the comm system on. "These dolls are no better than the ones Treize used. The only thing they're good for is long range attacks!"

"Fool!" Two's reply came back cold and vicious. "You never did understand!"

"Understand what, Two?" Heero barked back as he sliced another of the scarlet ZERO dolls. "How can anyone understand insanity?!"

"I was never insane!" Two's voice seemed to waver at that last come-back. "Once again, you demonstrate your ignorance!"

"Ignorance to what?!" Heero's annoyed reply cut through the comm system as he in turn cut the last Virgo III to shreds of glowing shrapnel.

"That old fool never could see past his own nose. He cared so much for you! What he didn't realize is that you were just a ward! I was to inherit the suit from him!"

That last comment startled Heero. Instantly, gears began turning in his head. Suddenly, the answer came to him.

"Doctor J was you father?"

"No, fool! He was my grandfather! He never did care about me! That's why I had the other candidates killed! I knew that, if he had to, he would have killed his own grandson for that damned mission! He never cared! Nobody ever has!" Pain and sorrow fused with anger and hatred as Two spilled his heart out over the comm system. "But now it doesn't matter. He's dead. And now you'll be joining him!"

Blasting forward on his modified Vernier engines, Two's suit quickly changed from its Bird Mode to combat form, instantly aiming the equally modified buster rifle at Heero's suit.

Cartwheeling around with one engine, Heero dodged blast after searing blast, each meant to rip his suit to pieces.

As he maneuvered, he keyed the comm so that only he and Two could hear each other.

"Tell me, Two. How did you survive that prototype's explosion? I must know!"

"Oh, that, One? I'm sure that's been eating at you for years, hasn't it?" Chuckling, he continued. "It's simple, really. I had modified that suit so much that I built redundant bulkheads around the cockpit. I knew that if the suit exploded, I would survive. That's what we do best, isn't it One?! Survive?!"

Finally getting an answer to a question that had laid in the back of his mind for years, Heero keyed the comm system off again, not wanting to hear Two's voice any more.

Thrustering to the left, Wing Vengeance swept around the Wing Zero. Turning its head, it fired its Vulcans on the back of Heero's suit. Serving as little more than a distraction, the Vulcans turned Heero's attempted maneuver into a slow, bounding spiral.

Turning about, the Wing Zero took aim with one of the halves of its buster rifle. Firing, Heero let a small sigh out as he saw the blast hit dead-on onto the back of Two's left knee assembly. While the blast didn't take the whole leg off as Heero wanted, it did manage to disable and fuse so much inside the leg that it quickly became useless.

Turning around, One let off a quick rapid-fire burst from his buster rifle, surprising Heero slightly.

That rifle was never able to do that when I piloted it!

Using the additional power from the two engines hanging from Wing Zero's back, Heero managed to dodge most of the blasts, but three managed to hit, damaging the left arm's elbow joint.

With each suit now sparking and crackling from a joint, the two pilots took a moment to re-evaluate one another. The two suits stared at each other for but a few scant seconds, but the time seemed agonizingly long for both pilots.

The momentary peace was broken when Two shot something out of his shield. It was a small, rotund canister. It crossed the gap between the two suits in such a small amount of time that Heero never really had time to react before the canister exploded.

A glowing cloud of fletchettes spread across in a sphere, damaging the Wing Zero in a thousand places. While most of the damage by itself was not that threatening, having thousands of razor-sharp, nearly-molten shards of Gundanium metal playing across a mobile suit's body can never be seen as a good thing.

Heero was quick to counter, firing a powerful shot at the Wing Vengeance from its buster rifle. The beam took the entire left arm of the opposing suit apart, taking the shield with it.

Two, for his part, was even quicker in returning fire. He weaved back and forth, but left his buster rifle behind. The right arm reached for the skirt armor and pulled out a large handle.

A monsterous bright green blade sprung forth from the pointy handle, which had a cable leading from the bottom of the cylinder to the back of Two's suit.

"Like it, One?" Somehow, Two's voice came back on the comm system. Heero looked down at the switch and found that, in the heat of battle, he had accidentally hit it and broke it. He sighed, knowing that there would be only one way to shut Two up. "I would think you would recognize it. After all, it did belong to a suit you once piloted. But, like the others, you abandoned it, too. A pity."

"As a matter of fact, Two, I do recognize it. It belonged to Epyon," Heero answered. Pressing buttons, Wing Zero soon armed itself with its own beam saber. "I've already fought against that blade, and won. If I have to, I'll do so again."

"Foolish talk from a foolish mind," Two spat back as his suit rocketed forward towards the Wing Zero. Cutting laterally, Wing Vengeance spun around with its slice, as though Two expected to destroy Wing Zero in one lunge. Luckily, Heero's blade met Two's in a clash of sparks that created deep, ghostly shadows in the faces of both suits.

"Listen to reason, Two! You have to! What you're doing isn't going to make anything better for anyone!" Heero shouted across the comm system. "It's no better than when OZ killed your family, your grandfather."

"Shut up!" Two spat back. "What do you know?! He gave you the royal treatment and I got the raw end of the bargain!"

"You're wrong, Two. I was given the countermand orders for your termination. I tried to tell you, but you refused to listen. You would have never been killed. Doctor J would have never destroyed you or the others."

Flying back, Wing Zero's blade powered down as Heero spoke to the crazed Two.

"You must listen, Two. You must."

"Bastard! I'll kill you!" Lunging forward, Wing Vengeance swung down in a diagonal cut that would have sliced Wing Zero from shoulder to hip if Heero not powered up his own blade at the last minute.

Warning lights on both suits began to blink uncontrollably as the stresses from the two combatants' blades stayed locked against one another became too great for either one to bear. Just before the entire servomotor system could blow, Two launched back, prepping for another attack. Heero braced himself, expecting a full-out head-on attack that would send his suit to its limits and back again, but was surprised when he found the attack coming from behind.

Two's cut sliced off the right arm of the Wing Zero, sending it flying away. It exploded soon after, taking the beam saber with it.

With no more significant weapons to use within grabbing range, Heero knew that he was defeated. Evil laughter plagued the comm system.

I'm sorry, Relena. I promised you I would come back and stay this time. I'm afraid that promise won't be kept.

I'm sorry.

A short, surprised yelp came over the comm system as Two found himself under attack from another mobile suit.

Checking his screens, his jaw dropped.

"Where in the hell did the Tallgeese come from?!"

"Gundam pilot, I think you dropped this," Zechs Merquise's voice said over the comm system. The white-and-grey Tallgeese IV was rocketing towards the fallen Wing Zero with a large, gray object in its left hand.

The Wing Zero's buster rifle! Heero thought.

"I'll take it from here Zechs," Heero said to the other ace pilot. Grabbing the buster rifle, Heero searched his screens for Two's suit, but became concerned when he couldn't find it.

"Where the hell did he go?" Heero said, more to himself than anyone else.

Suddenly, a blast hit the Tallgeese from its left, taking most of the arm assembly and part of an engine out in the resulting explosion. A large suit loomed behind Zech's Tallgeese, holding a buster rifle.

Two! He used jamming technology like Duo's to disguise his trail as he snuck up behind us and took us by surprise! Son of a bitch!

Laughing at the Tallgeese's incredible weaknesses, Two kept his position in front of the damaged suit. Taking aim once again, he fired, taking off everything of the Tallgeese's below its knees.

Now crippled, the Tallgeese could do next to nothing to survive. Because its engines were damaged, it could only do so much in terms of maneuvering. Its weapons had been destroyed, and its shield had been built into the left arm, which had exploded. It was essentially a sitting duck.

Taking his time, Two let another solid lock ring out for a good ten seconds before he decided to press the FIRE buttons.

Just as he was about to press the buttons, the Tallgeese's single working engine opened up and fired, using up the last of its fuel in a last-ditch effort to get out of the way.

Idiot. What's he trying to accomplish by doing such a poor maneuver?

As the Tallgeese shot off in a gradual spiral, Two realized half-a-second too late what was happening.

The Tallgeese had blocked his view of the Wing Zero as it took its aim with its powerful buster rifle, aiming directly for the Wing Vengeance's cockpit. Now that the Tallgeese was gone, Two could see the Wing Zero plainly now. Surprise overrode every sense in his body, freezing him in place for a solid second.

Heero took half that to let Two know he had made his final mistake.

The golden beam sheared through the cockpit, vaporizing the inner workings of the suit and the insane man who piloted it. Bulkheads or not, armor or not, Gundanuim or not, blasting any suit with the buster rifle always ended in the same result--an explosion that took the rest of the suit into hell with the pilot.

"Heero?" Quatre's voice rang out over the comm system, interrupting the golden silence that had followed shortly after Two's death. "Heero, this is Quatre. Please respond."

"I'm here, Quatre. What is it?" Heero's voice was much more weary than it had ever been before.

"All the ZERO dolls are deactivated. Seems like the Wing Vengeance was part of the ZERO doll network, so when it was destroyed, the whole network crashed."

"Good, Quatre, good."

"What's the matter, Heero?" Duo's cheery voice contrasted greatly to the mood Heero was in at the moment.

"I'll tell you later, on Earth. Let's just go home."

************************************************************************

Newport City

One Week Later

Shutting the door and locking it, Heero Yuy crossed through his room, plopped down on the bed, and shut his eyes.

That damn reporter girl has been stalking me every day for the last week, trying to get me to talk to her. She's more annoying than Relena or Dorothy were in the Eve Wars, in terms of stalking me. At least they had reasonable modivation to.

He allowed himself a slight smile.

Maybe I'll just shoot her.

A knock on the door forced Heero's eyes to spring open.

If that's her . . .

Getting up and answering the door, he was mildly relieved when he saw that it was, in fact, the rest of the Gundam pilots (except Wufei), Hilde, Dorothy, Catherine, and Relena at his door. Then, thinking of what they'd probably say to him or make him do, he decided he'd much rather have dealt with that reporter girl.

"Hey, Heero! You always answer a door with your gun?" Duo's cheery voice dropped lower as he spotted the gun in Heero's right hand.

"Are you kidding?" Quatre answered, as he was holding Dorothy's hand. "Everything Heero does involves weapons."

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"What do you want?" Heero's no-nonsense tone cut the conversation short.

"Well, Heero, we were wondering," Relena answered. "The wars are over, and you need a job. Would you like to stay here and perhaps teach at the academy?" Her hopeful eyes gazed into him.

"I'm a soldier. Not a teacher."

"Maybe hall monitor or crosswalk guard would suit you . . ." Duo started, but ended abruptly as Hilde elbowed him in the ribs.

"Perhaps assistant principal would work," Trowa suggested. "Everything they do you have experience in already."

"Hmmm . . ." Heero pondered. "I'll think about it."

As he started to shut his door, Relena stuck her foot in its path.

"Not so fast, Heero. I know what you're about to do."

Heero glanced up at her questioningly.

"You're about to shut that door and forget about everything we just said. Not this time. C'mon." Stepping in the doorway, she grabbed hold of Heero's elbow. "We have dinner made up already and there's a celebration ball afterwards, and I need a date."

Heero's eyebrow arched as he looked towards the other pilots, hoping to get help from them. As he looked at each one, they pulled their dates to their sides one by one. Trowa had invited Catherine, though it was more of a sibling thing than a real date, Duo had Hilde, obviously, and, surprisingly to Heero, Quatre had Dorothy. He already knew that Wufei would have invited Sally Po, so he couldn't expect any aid from him.

Seeing that he had no other choice, he nodded.

"Very well. I will need half an hour to prepare."

"Fair enough, Heero," Relena replied, smiling from ear to ear.

Well, that's it! That's the end of the GUNDAM WING: VENGEANCE saga! I'm misty-eyed, to be honest. I can't believe it's over!

MAKE SURE TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! I can't know what to do in the future if you don't tell me what you do or don't like!

Sorry I didn't include more Tallgeese combat stuff. I just had trouble fitting it all into one chapter! I know there's already enough here for two chapters, but I really wanted it in five chapters total, so I had to edit and add stuff so it would be. I'm sorry to all those die-hard Tallgeese and Zechs fans. I feel your sorrow. I'm a big fan, too.

Well, I hope you were surprised at Two's identity! It was kind of a revelation to me as I worked on this in the wee hours of the night. Note that this story was finished at 12:19 AM on Tuesday, February 20. My parents will kill me if they find this out, but I'm an insomniac, so I really don't mind!

I really hoped you enjoyed my story! If I've offended anyone in the course of writing this, I'm sorry. As I say, I don't intend to offend. Please don't hate me. I hate confrontations!

Anyhow, if you have any suggestions on future writings, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO TELL ME! I appreciate any reviews, good or bad.

PLEASE VISIT MY SITE! It's at

www.geocities.com/wing_zero_pilot195/wing_zero_pilot195

Wing_zero_pilot195's Anime Realm!

DBZ and Gundam Wing!