I've got one of the songs from "Moulin Rouge" stuck in my head. Anyone have a cure for "Sparkling Diamonds?"

Sings (quietly so as not to wake the parental units):

*Diamonds are a girl's best*

*Diamonds are a girl's best*

*Diamonds are a girl's best friend!*

(Actually, I prefer emeralds, but the song is just too catchy . . .)

AC 208: The Search for Truth (Part XII)

"Unplanned Fortunes"

The jungle shuddered as Wufei landed a little harder than he'd intended. It was a September noon, sweltering, humid, and extremely unpleasant. Wufei sweated his way to Phailin's village, expecting the worst. The trail between the base at Samut Sakhon and the village was overgrown, abandoned for months, and Phailin wasn't at the base.

The village, however, was not smoldering in ruins. Everything seemed quite normal. He heard his name called and recognized Jason, Phailin's little brother, running in his direction, trailed by perhaps a dozen children laden with little white flowers. "Wufei, we've been waiting for you for many months!" he cried happily. "Phailin will be so happy to hear!"

Relief spread through him like a liquid. "She's all right? Where is she?"

Jason frowned. "You can't see her right now."

"She's my wife! What's happened to her?" Wufei felt the relief drain away as fast as it had come.

Jason looked uneasy as the village children began to drape their flower strings over his brother in-law. "Wait here," he said. "I'll be right back."

Nearly twenty anxious minutes had gone before the boy returned, a grin plastered on his features. The expression was very irritating. "Follow me."

He'd never been to the indicated area of town before, but it definitely seemed less crowded. The argument was evident as soon as he had the right building. He recognized one voice as Phailin's, tired, strained and frustrated, far past all negotiation. He wondered what had kept her from coming to greet him in person.

"Inside," Jason said, motioning to the door. "I'm not allowed."

So he went. Phailin must have picked up the sound of the door opening, because she spat a final word and fought her way out of the back room. Her face was different than he remembered, rounder, but a bright, massively joyful smile flushed any other detail away. He couldn't see much behind the high counter, but as she beckoned him behind it he paused, finally able to take in the rest of her.

The secluded building with medical equipment scattered about . . . the reason men weren't allowed in . . . her agitation and suddenly anxious face . . . he saw finally how it all fit together. He met her gaze and realized that he'd been gone nearly three seasons, nine months of total isolation from her. Nine months had passed with him totally oblivious to the fact that he was about to witness the birth of a child. Before he truly knew what was happening, he was being holding her tight against his chest, carefully lending her support around her round stomach. In a furious rush, he clutched her to him, relishing the lightheaded feeling that overtook his weariness completely.

Phailin whimpered suddenly, grimacing. Wufei felt the muscles of her stomach ripple, and suddenly realized he'd barely made it in time. He shushed her gently, stroking her long hair. He hadn't seen it down in so long, he realized, and he'd forgotten how very beautiful it made her look. "I love you," he told her, realizing they had a bit of an audience from the back room. It was Phailin's mother and a young Chinese girl he didn't recognize.

She smiled and surrendered a little sigh. "I wasn't going to let tradition, superstition or my mother keep you from being here. Why don't you go get cleaned up? It's likely to be a while longer."

"Only if you'll send for me if something happens," he said, kissing her forehead gently.

"I will," she promised. "Oh, but bring back those flowers. They smell nice."

~~@[~*,~]@~~

"Blast it," Marie growled, shaking her mane of tangled red-gold curls. "I'm just gonna tear my way out of here. Whoever heard of making a ship so completely hard to navigate?"

::Well, if it makes you feel any better, these halls were not designed for something of my size,:: Fortuna added as a spark from a broken fuel line landed on her arm. The gundam shook it off quickly.

"Yeah, helps a lot." Marie ignited her beam saber, stuck it through the ceiling, and rolled away when the chamber above protested violently in a shower of fire. "Okay, let's not go that way."

::Oh really? I thought that would be a perfect route.::

"Just shut up, okay? I'm trying as hard to get out of here as you!" Marie sighed. "I don't see a good exit. All that debris that fell in on us is blocking the way we came."

::Noted. Any other bright ideas?::

"No."

Marie sank down into her cushy seat and ran the scanners. Perfect, fuel tanks surrounded them.

"Don't let those scanners fool you. Inimicus has deliberately misled Fortuna's equipment. The hull is only three layers to your left," said a distressingly familiar voice.

Marie groaned with exasperation. "You again? I thought you'd finally left me alone." She looked around, but there was no one around. He didn't reply.

::Who are you talking to?:: Fortuna was a little accusatory. ::Not me, I take it?::

"Never mind. Let's try to our left." He probably didn't want to kill her at least, Marie suspected. Why would he deliberately lead her into a trap if she was going to burn up inside the gutted Gayla anyway?

Lo and behold, he was right. She almost wilted with relief as she saw Earth and its blue halo of atmosphere through the hole she made with her beam saber. She took a moment to be a spectator. "God, look at that." The marbled blue orb spun slowly, half in night and half in day from their angle. The dark side glowed with lights from cities and towns. The light side gleamed in beautiful color, and Marie felt herself shiver. There's nowhere else in the universe like it, she realized. Now I know what Cam meant by having no words. She felt wetness on her cheek and realized she was crying.

::I've never seen a real living planet beside yours,:: Fortuna admitted. Then, she said something that was the biggest understatement of all time. ::It's beautiful.::

Marie leapt out and fled the beckoning gravity field, snapping back into reality with a new determination. She could hear the ship creaking under strains. "Do you see her anywhere?"

::Yes. She's on the other side. She was never chasing us around inside after all. Be cautious.::

Marie patted the gundam's console. "We have to fight her, and I think, after taking a good long look at that planet I call home, I know why. Sooner is better than later. Do you need any time?"

::Let me tell Nulles . . . let me tell him I'm all right.::

"Don't let him interfere this time," Marie warned. "She'll run away again, and we can't chase her."

The gundam was silent for a long moment, and Marie took that long to remorse. Her life had felt so empty since Cam had died, so useless. She missed lying in his arms at night. She missed the company, the understanding. She wondered if it would have been of any use, had she been able to tell him goodbye. Or tell him how much of a joy he'd been in her life.

~~@[~*,~]@~~

The birthing room was wonderfully dim, a relief from the harsh sun that shone down. Wufei shook as much water out of his hair as he could before stepping through the curtain, dressed in fresh white linens. It felt good to be back with his wife.

"Phailin, stop pacing," her mother scolded.

"It's not hurting anything, Charunee," Phailin's grandmother scolded, coming to the woman's defense. "It will be better for her if she works off her tension."

Wufei squeezed his wife's shoulder. "I'm here, now, what more could you want?"

She smiled. "I suppose things will be magically right now?"

"Of course."

It wasn't long before she went into the final stages of her labor. There was a small crowd waiting outside, among them Chatalerm, from whom Wufei had learned much about the past months while he had bathed. Wufei held her with newfound respect and affection, marveling at how strong she must have been to survive the horrible ordeal.

"Breathe, Phailin," the girl reminded her gently, down at the business end of the bed.

Phailin struggled for breath, gripping Wufei's hand tightly. Then, she shoved him away. "Go," she told him.

"Excuse me?" But she'd wanted him with her, didn't she? He wasn't going to leave.

"I want you to be the first," Phailin said quickly. "I want you to hold the baby first." She grimaced, and the girl started telling her to push again.

"Are you insane, girl—?"

Phailin's grandmother cut her daughter off quickly. "It is their child," she said, as if she was the definitive authority on the subject. "Let them decide how to celebrate the moment."

The Chinese girl hopped to the side to allow him close. It felt strange, to be where he was (especially with the two older women bickering in the background). The girl draped a towel over his hands and gave him heavily accented instructions, hovering over his shoulder like a watchful owl.

Phailin watched Wufei, half-tempted to laugh. He looked so confused, but she wanted no one else to hold their child more, if it couldn't be her. She clenched her teeth and gave it all she was worth. She'd lost muscle mass during the long period where she was incapable of training, but it was still well present. The sooner this was over with, the sooner she could rest.

The look on his face when an infant's cry broke through the thick, humid air was enough to tell her that the long wait had all been well worth it. No sooner had he rose to his feet cradling the small wailing bundle, however, than Phailin's mother swept it from his arms off to the back of the room. Wufei let out a small, wordless cry of protest and followed like a helpless child. Jen shot Phailin a look of amusement.

I knew it, Phailin thought. It's a boy. It couldn't have been anything else, she knew. He would have never admitted to be happier with a son, but it's very difficult to deny thousands of years of built-in tradition.

Finally, they allowed the baby back in his arms and he stood in the middle of the floor ultimately oblivious to anyone else, shifting the loose red blanket until the desperate crying died down at last. "Wu . . ." Phailin finally said, not wanting to disturb him too much but anxious for a chance to hold the baby too.

He glanced up, as if only just remembering where he was. He joined his wife, perching on her bed. "She's beautiful," he breathed, reluctantly surrendering the infant.

She thought he'd misspoke until she got a chance to study the small baby, still clutching at her father's finger. She realized why he'd been so speechless. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she inquired quietly, looking up at him.

He nodded, speaking only a single word. "Merian." She looked even more like his first wife than even Phailin did, and it was easy to tell even this early. It was just that little bit more of Chang blood in her, they both knew.

Phailin didn't say it, but the name would already have stuck in all their minds. To tell the truth, she didn't mind at all. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes against Wufei's shoulder, feeling his heart beat strong.

~~@[~*,~]@~~

"It'll only give her more to worry about," Heero said, doing his best to reason with Zero. "I told you before, interfering now may only cost you both. Fortuna is a capable fighter. You know that probably better than I do. You just have to step aside and let her prove her own. Trust me."

::Maybe I don't trust you,:: Zero said, sounding a lot like Akiko when she was beaten but still trying to defy him.

It's all part of growing up . . . Heero reminded himself, trying hard to restrain a chuckle. It hardly seemed so, but the precious bit of information from Ihminen that the gundams were still, in essence, children had done wonders for his understanding.

No matter what, though, Heero had regained control of Nulles' systems. "I'm flatly refusing to do it," he said. "I have been through this. Come now, you should know that we all need to stand on our own feet once and a while. You'll have her in your arms as much as you want later."

It was obvious something had happened when the gundams had been aboard the Laiva. Heero mused that it was probably a lecture on Zero's end, and a little softening up on Fortuna's. Zero's thoughts ran more along the lines of being with the other more than ever, his pilot sensed. He hadn't said anything, but it did make Heero long to be back home with his own family.

::Maybe you're right,:: Nulles said, startling him. ::I've been selfish. We should go. This might be too painful to watch.::

"No," Heero said. "She'll want your support. Don't leave her behind. Don't worry; a little longer without Relena and Akiko and Raina isn't going to hurt me." Besides, a little selflessness for a friend wouldn't be too bad once and a while.

~~@[~*,~]@~~

There she was, perched upon the shell of what had once been the Gayla, bloodred wings folded tightly against her lithe body. Fortuna glared at her sister, familial love that she should have felt for the gundam buried under the long list of detestable misdeeds and atrocities she had committed.

"Dim natroac," Fortuna said, startling Marie badly. She'd never heard the gundam speak before, only mentally. They were words she didn't recognize; yet she understood their meaning. I'm ready to face the universe.

"And I'll stand beside you," Marie added quietly.

"Cha, neßerial." The words vibrated even through the emptiness of space. So you've survived.

::I don't die easily, dear sister,:: Fortuna said calmly as Inimicus sneered. Marie caught a bit of insight into the theory that was blossoming in her head. She'd never had siblings, growing up guarded in Dekim's many mansions, but there was something about family she'd learned with her friends and the Phantom Runners; something she'd learned from Ben and Dennis, and Cam especially. Even when she was angry with them, she had still loved them. Underneath her hostile feelings, Fortuna loved her sister and wanted nothing more than to have Inimicus simply change, while for her sister the red gundam felt nothing more than contempt and jealousy. Fortuna was extremely reluctant to fight, if only because she knew one of them wouldn't leave alive.

::A pity.:: One thing about evil people is that they tended to talk to much, to hide their cowardice and confusion and misgivings. That had been Erik Beliv's trademark as a politician, and Marie was beginning to think that perhaps it happened with everything evil. ::I see you've brought the child with you. Do you really need the help?::

"I am not a child," Mariemaia said quietly, knowing full well that Inimicus could hear her. "Nor am I help. This universe is far greater than any of us will ever know. I intend to live my short life gathering all the knowledge I can. I am a road companion."

There was the equivalent of a snort. ::You sound like those petty Earthen philosophers that our creators love so much. They're all fools, trusting their future in such a delicate, backwards race.::

::Pray, tell what you have learned in your own studies, o wise one,:: Fortuna retorted, growing impatient.

Inimicus left her perch and drew back her beam saber for a strike. ::I have learned,:: she responded with a hint of savage glee, ::that all things being material, all things can be destroyed!::

Fortuna blocked easily, choosing the defensive rather than the attack. She parried two more blows, one high, one sweeping low and to the left, executed a swift roll backwards, and paused, waiting for Inimicus to make another move, not taunting. All the while, Mariemaia ignored the battle (knowing she was nowhere near fast enough to be of much help there anyway) and pored over the comments. Her father's face flashed into her mind for some reason, and she remembered doing the math once. She would be turning twenty in November, Ben was a year older, as was Cam when he died, and Dennis was sixteen. Her father had been seventeen when she'd been conceived, eighteen when she'd been born. He had been twenty-four when he'd died. Milliardo had been a year younger when Operation Meteor had been dismantled, and Trowa, Heero, Quatre, Wufei, Duo and Relena had all been a mere fifteen at the height of the war— younger than she was now! Most of all, the most feared person for a period of hours had been a seven year-old girl convinced that her father had been a warmonger, when in fact a few words with Lady Une had changed her tune completely.

"If you want philosophy," she said finally as the two gundams whirled furiously in space, "I'll spout Earth philosophy. In recent times, our greatest warriors have been not famed legends packing great steel swords, but young people searching for meaning. I have come to believe that it is not the impulsiveness of youth that has defined war, as many would believe, but rather the importance of the understanding that comes with youth and sets with age. Some are too old to fight because they have set in their ways and are not impressionable. It is young people who give all people hope and strength and conviction, and that is because they believe in things such as the perfect moment that have disappeared from in front of the eyes of the old and the stubborn. All young people must fight to gain the knowledge, as I have, that everything has a beauty.

"It has been the belief of my father for longer than I have been willing to accept it that there can be battles without war. The human race can never cooperate fully. There are too many individuals, but those individuals make our species beautiful in turn. That's what my father saw in everything. There is even beauty in something outwardly ugly if you take the time to dissect it. It is the nature of every intelligent being to disagree and fight. Take that away and we have lost something irreplaceable. That is why other peoples love us. We have philosophy in despite of war, whereas no one else seems to have been able to achieve that. Earth is the counterbalance of morality in the universe. That is why we are so unique."

::Enough! You're pointless babbling is annoying me!:: Inimicus slashed as if she was swatting a fly.

::Your blows are becoming sloppy,:: Fortuna scolded, evading easily. The gundam was gaining strength with every word her pilot spoke, slowly realizing a little more about herself. ::Anger has clouded your concentration, sister.::

::You, shut up!::

"Oh, but I'm not done," Marie told her. "Not by a long shot."

~~@[~*,~]@~~

Then there came the issue of where the baby and her mother would sleep. This time it was Wufei's turn to argue with Phailin's mother. He was not having very much success, considering how many prejudices the woman had against him. "She's my wife. I've lived without her by my side for the better portion of a year, and I want her sleeping next to me tonight!"

"I don't feel comfortable in this bed, mother," Phailin muttered sleepily, nursing their daughter with heavy arms. "I'm not used to it, and I won't know my way around the building in the middle of the night. Besides, there's no place for Wufei to stay and he wants to be close to the baby, as do I."

"I don't trust that Chang." The woman reverted back to familiar territory. "The whole line is bad blood. Murderous, thieving wifebeaters are what they are. There's no escaping it."

The young woman in the corner spoke up now, her voice hard. Wufei hadn't heard more than a few phrases from her since he'd first seen her, but now she seemed determined to defy the older woman. "You forget, Charunee, that Chatalerm and I also now live in your daughter's house. I am fully capable of handling newborn babies and have done it many times before, even in this village. Should both Phailin and Chang Wufei exhaust themselves, I will bend my back to the task without complaint. I have taken a lot of grief over the crimes of a few people. Those few people cost their entire clan to be banished. I will no longer tolerate such indignation in the light of those who have done absolutely nothing wrong!" She leapt to her feet, blushing furiously.

Wufei watched the girl, startled. Strange, how another Chang would find their way to the village, and how she stood up for herself. Most of the Chang survivors merely took insults with hung heads.

"I too won't stand for it," he added, to tired to argue any more. " Phailin is going to sleep in her own bed, under her own roof, with the rest of her family, tradition and murderous clan history aside." Without another word, he gathered the blankets around his wife and took her in his arms, out into the street. Normally, she would have protested and demanded to be put down and let to walk on her own, but she only sighed and put her head on his shoulder, holding Merian protectively out of the disagreeable Charunee's grasp. The frail little Chang girl scuttled out of the building behind them, not wanting to be alone with the woman's wrath.

There was still a crowd of villagers outside, all of whom cheered as they spotted Wufei carrying his wife like the hero out of an old storybook. Phailin grinned sheepishly and nuzzled his neck, eyes closed, contented beyond words and actions.

"Thank you for the defense." Wufei remembered the girl after he'd settled Phailin and Merian down into their respective bed and crib. "I'm glad there's more than one person who regrets our clan's past actions."

"I did learn it all from you," she said quietly, reverting back to the more comfortable language of their birth. Something felt oddly familiar about her now.

"I don't understand," he told her. "I get the feeling I should know you."

She smiled. "It's been many years, and I was but a child," she said. "I remember the kind boy who always saw something more in me than an easily breakable body and an obedient, soft heart. I've waited for so long to see you again, Wu Fei."

"No, I haven't forgotten you," Wufei said suddenly, realization dawning. "How could I ever forget someone I loved as much as my own dear little sister?"

Jen smiled and put her hands on his shoulders, happy for the moment to see her brother so overjoyed with new riches of family.

Wufei enveloped her in a tight hug, shunning stupid formalities in light of the knowledge that she hadn't died with the rest. "I should have known all along that you'd be smarter than that," he whispered.

Indeed, how could life get any better?

~~@[~*,~]@~~

"I wonder if Mariemaia ever made it here," Dennis said idly, staring out the window of the escape vehicle at the growing face of Earth. "Ben would have loved to see her one last time."

"Ben told me he wasn't staying," the man next to him said, shifting. "He said he's still got a girlfriend back home. It only takes about 5 people to run a ship that size; he wanted everyone else out even if they wanted to stay."

"Really?" Dennis didn't dare trust the man's word. "He sounded so sure standing up on the bridge like that."

"He's a strange guy. I think maybe if he put a valiant image in people's minds we'd still be looked at as heros when the government starts processing traitors and deserters." The young man laughed, cobalt-blue eyes scanning their slowly spinning panorama.

"So what about you? Kicked out, I suppose."

"Nah. I still got a lot to live for . . . I hope." He motioned. "There they are. You see them? Sure are lighting the sky."

Dennis followed the gaze, watching for the telltale signs of a thermal weapon fight. "Yeah. Haven't seen that red one in a while. She must've been in hiding or something."

"Those gundams, Fortuna and Inimicus, they don't need pilots," the man told him, brushing slightly messy sandy-blonde hair from his face. "And they're going to tear each other apart at this rate." The fight drifted out of view again. "I hope Mariemaia found some way to escape," he said quietly, almost to himself.

"She always does," Dennis told him. "She's a survivor, that one."

Cam smiled and hugged the bag he'd packed full of things he knew she would have wanted to save. "So am I."

~~@[~*,~]@~~

They were on death's doorstep, yet Marie was enjoying herself. Knowledge such as she had come across was enlightenment, she'd concluded. She felt a lot better now that she understood it all, much as her father must have felt.

::You've gone awfully silent for a little girlie who has more to say,:: Inimicus teased, laughing.

Marie smiled coldly. "It'll go down in the history books as Inimicus's Paradox," she said, ignoring the snide comment.

::Whatsee would that be?:: Inimicus answered that one a little too quickly to have been merely sarcastic. The greedy thing was interested in anything with her name.

Fortuna wasn't going to let her get off that easy, though. She for the first time took the offensive, driving at her sister with her sword held in front. Inimicus barely dodged, spinning away just in time to avoid the deadly blade. Your left! Marie told Fortuna urgently when she lost sight of her sister.

::Thanks.:: Fortuna dodged right and brought her beam saber down to block.

Anytime, friend.

::Ah, refusing to answer. You haven't learned nearly as much as you think you have, little girl.:: Inimicus crowed and hurled a piece of debris at them. Fortuna dodged and sped after the red winged demon, cornering sharply around the curve of the Gayla. She was almost struck by another scrap of sharp metal, but Marie quickly assumed control of the gundam's free arm and caught it.

::What would I do without you?:: Fortuna praised her gratefully.

"Trust me, by the time I've finished explaining why this is a death-match, you'll never want to hear the inside of my thoughts again," Marie promised.

::So why don't you start explaining? We're all anxiously awaiting truth, you know.::

Marie grinned. "If you insist, my impatient opponent.

"It first came to me when Heero started explaining to me Akiko's ideas about 'emotional energy,' centered on the basis that because all things in the universe are fundamentally energy, so must be thought and emotion. I began to remember my own reflections upon humanity, and how it seemed that there seemed to be no one person that was truly evil.

"Evil is the opposite of good. We all believe that because we were taught so as small children. As we grow, we lose any wondering about the lines between good and evil and accept the facts that we have been taught, because it makes it easier on our brains to be absolutely sure of something. I've done a lot of thinking these past months, and I realized that I am not going to sacrifice comfort for the truth, as complex and confusing as it may turn out to be.

"Then in the last stages of our growth, we come to see the shades of gray. The man who cheats on his wife is not really evil, merely immoral. The woman who sells her body on the streets is not evil, only a sinner. We beings of the universe have become so afraid of evil that we must find a way to redeem ourselves, when in fact we have only been satisfying deep down instincts that don't consider the emotional impact. Our complex emotions and the energy they create are what cause us to think in terms of good and evil. If it is painful, it is evil. If it feels good— except in rare cases that are utterly confusing when erratic beliefs and perversion take over— it's okay. I know the shades of gray well. I have lived in them for so long that I've forgotten what the color white looks like. But living there, I can tell you that there is much more to the story than shades of gray."

::Very, very intriguing,:: laughed Inimicus. ::Such deep thoughts for one so wrong.::

"I'm not wrong," Marie retorted. "No one this sure can be wrong."

Fortuna slid across the Gayla's hull, causing sparks, and kicked out with one slender, dark green leg. Inimicus caught the blow full in the chest, and went flying backwards.

"There is good and evil, right and wrong, happiness and sadness, and all of them weave together in a spectrum of color. All things must have as much variety in order to exist in this complex reality. Ihminen said that my father knew that Earth was a balance point, and I understand now. Humans are a perfect combination of philosophy and war, blood and beauty. We can regulate ourselves, whereas one or the other would have destroyed us long ago. The other worlds that he told me were from another galaxy that can no longer support life of any kind collapsed because they did not learn what I have now learned, and I have learned that you and Erik Beliv must be killed."

::Yet if everything is energy, will we truly die?:: Inimicus swung her beam saber in a wide arc, taking off several feather tips from Fortuna's right wing.

Marie was silent, having the strange urge to scratch at wings she didn't have. Fortuna's pulse was almost deafening, and the faint veins on the walls were more prominent now. "The threat will be eliminated for the moment," she said finally. "True evil will never be killed entirely. It's too easy to fall victim to. It is those of us who believe themselves to be in the middle, not angelic but not evil, that balance the energy of the universe. If Earth is destroyed, the regulator will be lost. We will be too confused to believe in what we are anymore. Everything within us is who we believe ourselves to be, because who we think we are is what we become. Every action reflects our thoughts, and every thought's energy comes to support our place in the universe. If we believe what we are doing is right, it is. If we think we are wrong, we will be. It's karma on a level that I don't think monks have come to discover, mainly because they refuse to experience the violence that a soldier does. It all comes down to belief. Whatever you believe in is your reality, and no one can take that away from you. I believe that I know, so I know."

::You're talking in circles, foolish girl,:: Inimicus scolded. Fortuna barely avoided a slice at her chest, barely blocked the next one at her neck. She was tiring, though Inimicus was too. Marie could sense her call for help, and lent her bonded all the strength she could manage.

"All that boils down to the simple fact that if the balance is destroyed, as it was in the other galaxy from which your creators came, everything will collapse. Everyone will die, because no one has had the time to flee. The energy will be eliminated, never to return. The gundams will perish, because they live off this energy as well. That is the Inimicus Paradox."

Fortuna let out a cry of surprise as she was thrown from the hull of the ship, scrambling desperately for a hold. Marie stopped her as she watched the Gayla shudder with impact. "Something's hit it hard. We'd better get out of the way."

~~@[~*,~]@~~

"Sir, there's no chance of us making it to the surface now!" One of the surviving officers looked up at his Admiral with the expression of a scared little boy. "The atmosphere's going to burn everything up as full of holes as we are!"

"I know," Erik Beliv said quietly. He could hear air hissing from microline fractures all around him. The room's pressure was going down more rapidly with each passing second. Beliv surveyed the bridge with an eye of regret, sighing a little. Sparks were being thrown everywhere, and the red emergency lights only enhanced the scene of dead and dying men crushed by rubble or thrown by impacts themselves. The plan had failed rather sadly, but at least he wouldn't be around to watch his dreams crumble.

Perhaps I was wrong to second-guess Treize, he thought. After all, his daughter would have no doubt understood him better than I do. The officer that had spoken to him made a gaging sound and coughed, and Beliv suppressed one of his own. The sensation of being pulled apart could be felt now, and he knew it would be a painful way to go.

Fortuna and Inimicus flew by, just slow enough in Earth's gravity well to see. Inimicus . . . he chuckled. In Latin, the gundam's name meant 'enemy,' though according to Dorothy in her own language it was the equivalent of 'destiny.' How ironic, considering Fortuna's christening, 'fate' in Latin and 'friend' in her own language! What a traitor the red gundam had turned out to be, only trouble for him. That wench Catelonia had abandoned him too, no doubt to the Alliance's disadvantage.

Everything was ruined now. He should have never hired the scheming, secretive Ingraham for a captain. He had all that knowledge about those experiments and hadn't even told his commanding officer! The colonies would go back to being earth-friendly, and those damn gundam pilots had all survived.

The ship shook again as the Phantom Runners exacted their justice and the world went white with fire.

~~@[~*,~]@~~

Fortuna required reserves of energy that Marie just couldn't supply. Inimicus laughed much in a way that reminded her of her cousin Dorothy. ::Had enough? Should I just kill you quickly and prove your poor little pilot wrong that I was the one to die today?::

::I will not allow it,:: Fortuna said defiantly, weary voice still up to the challenge. The sun was poking up above Earth's horizon now, and the warm rays were starting to supply both mobile suits with much needed fuel. ::There is still a life to live which you do not have to return to. I promised Nulles I wouldn't surrender to scum like you!::

::Suit yourself. Die slowly.:: Inimicus swung again, but miscalculated the distance. With a cry of pain, she stumbled across the blooming fireball of the Gayla. Space around them was starting to mist over as they began the long descent to the surface.

With one last spurt, Fortuna glided away from the expanding heat, thinking her sister finally destroyed. Resilience is always surprising, however, and Inimicus emerged, skin blackened and burning. ::Not so fast! If I'm going down, I'm going to take you with me!::

Marie couldn't speak with the pain. Nothing had touched her, but when she looked down she saw blood blossoming from under her flightsuit. The beam saber that had touched her gundam had somehow wounded her as well. As she watched through burning eyes, the beam saber fell from Inimicus's hands and violet eyes closed one last time.

::The trouble with lifebonds . . .:: Fortuna told her, managing to speak despite the pain they were both feeling. ::Is that they tend to affect both partners equally. I'm sorry, Mariemaia.::

Marie shook her head sadly, pressing her palm against the wound and wincing. "Don't be. I for one think that this journey was well worth it. I'm sorry about Zero."

::Me too. Listen . . . I want you . . . as soon as we get low enough in the atmosphere . . . I want you to jump. Don't protest. Maybe you'll live . . . there's no way I'll be able to get the kind of attention I need . . . but maybe you will.::

Marie nodded, too stricken with sacrifice to argue.

::And tell Nulles . . . tell him I love him and always will.::

"I will," Marie promised, knowing she wished she'd had the exact same chance only a few months ago, as they tumbled alongside the remains of the ships that were burning in the sky, a beautiful show of falling stars that hid their true gruesome stories.

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

Found a cure: Elephant Love Medly.

*Love lifts us up where we belong, where eeeeeeagles fly, on a mooountain high*

*Love makes us act like we are fools, throw our lives away for one happy day*

*We could be HEEROS! (Just for one day)*

Etc.

You know, I just noticed that typo two lines up. I think maybe I'll leave it in to give you guys a little laugh. I don't know many times I've typed that name, but I've started to substitute every "hero" I write with it. That is really pathetic. I hope I'm not the only one that's ever done that *bites fingernails.* God, now that I think about it I think I'm going to go over my old reports. I registered Heero's name in Word's dictionary so I wouldn't keep getting those annoying little red lines, so it wouldn't have shown up. I feel like an airhead . . .

*So excuse me forgetting 'bout these things I do. 'Cause you see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue!*

So anyway, there's a new meaning to Cam's death, huh? As in that he's not really dead. It'd be pretty sad if he lost her now, huh? And that, too, she's finally come around to forgiving Treize (a little bit). The finale of the Great War ends in the next chapter of AC 208: The Search for Truth (Part XIII): "One Breath."