Chapter 14
Meanwhile, The rest of the pilots were in the large office room they used, typing up their reports on what they had seen during the battle. Quatre was detailing the models used when he received a message.
WinnerKD—Hello again, little brother!
WinnerQR—Kellee! How are you?
WinnerKD—Fine. But guess what?
Quatre had just begun to type when he heard the intercom come on, and he looked up.
"Incoming shuttle requesting clearance to land."
Quatre smiled.
WinnerQR—Always have to make an entrance, don't you?
WinnerKD—Yup. See ya in a couple of minutes.
WinnerQR—See ya.
Quatre stood up, and walked to the door before turning around.
"Anyone who wants an excuse to ditch the report for a couple of hours, follow me."
As it happened, no one seemed inclined to keep typing. They all met at the docking bay several minutes later, wondering what Quatre knew that they didn't. Heero asked once what they were doing, and Quatre replied with "You'll see." Heero had never enjoyed getting such answers. All it meant is they wanted to see your face when you were surprised.
The bay doors opened, and the shuttle entered. Quatre was surprised how big it was. It was only supposed to be a civilian shuttle. He chalked it up to Lee's adamant attitude that they had more money than ten people could spend in three hundred years, so why not spend it, and calmed down. When the shuttle hatch opened, he and the other five went to greet her…and her companion? Who the hell was THAT?
"Well, this is my sister, Kellee. But who is THIS?" he asked, looking at her companion. He looked startlingly like Duo, with the same wide grin, and even had the same chestnut, waist long hair, though it was not in a braid.
The man answered his question. "Hi. Names Jase. I'm a friend of Kellee's, and one of the medics appointed by Winner Corp for their employees."
The rest of the pilots were now chattering with Kellee and Quatre, reminiscing about the Christmas party and catching up on things. No one noticed, but Duo and Jase now had their gaze locked on one another. Questioning and suspicious. Jase shook his head, and mouthed "later".
Kellee turned, and motioned toward the back of the shuttle. "You guys wanna see something REALLY cool?" she walked toward the end of the shuttle, and the rest of the pilots looked at each other. They shrugged, and followed.
Kellee hit the switch to open the cargo doors, and hit the lights.
"GAH! Sh..SHIT." came from an astonished Duo at viewing the contents of the cargo bay.
There, crouched in the shuttle, was the most dangerous looking mobile suit he had ever seen. The suit itself looked similar to the gundams, but it looked even more deadly. There were blades curving up from the ends of the feet, longer ones extending from the knees. Shorter ones extending the inside of the wrists, blades that curved outward past the elbow on the outside of the wrists, long blades on the elbows, three blades each made up the shoulder plates, and four long blades curved down the suit's back from each shoulder. The suits head looked like the rest of the gundams, except that it had three more blades on it, extending well past the head, one starting on the forehead and curving backward, over the top, and similar blades on the sides of the head. The hands looked like a cats, each finger was tipped with a ripping claw.
Kellee smiled at their reactions. "Introducing," she began, "the gundam Saberclaw."
Quatre was stunned. "This is YOURS?" he glared at Kellee. "Oh no. NO way. You are NOT doing this to me."
"Doing WHAT to you?" she asked indignantly. "I scored higher on the simulators than YOU did." She reminded him, and he opened his mouth, though said nothing. He threw his hands in the air, silently saying 'Why?'
"And besides….." she broke off as both of her emerald eyes met a single jade one. It mesmerized her for a moment, and managed not to blush as the one visible eyebrow raised. She continued, and the others seemed not to have noticed.
Trowa thought about what had probably just happened. She was beautiful, any idiot could see that. But that on look had speared him. She had the GREENEST eyes…..'Shut UP, Barton. She's Quatre's sister. That would NOT be a good idea.' He couldn't help but keep thinking about it, and her, though she was obviously highly skilled in the art of mindless chatter. Something he had never had much use for.
When the rest of the crowd had left, Duo and Jase pretended to follow. They were the last in the group, and after everyone had gone through the door, Duo yanked Jase sideways by the arm and closed it.
"Look, I know we need to talk, but couldn't you have at least tried not to dislocate my shoulder?" Jase said mildly, rubbing the offending joint.
"Who are you, and why do you look like me?" Duo demanded, anger in his violet eyes, very similar to Jase's.
"I was gonna ask you the same thing." Jase answered irritably.
"Well, what's your story?" Duo asked, leaning against the wall.
"My full name is Jason Andrews. I was born on L2, and was in an orphanage until Oz destroyed it and captured me. I was trained as an OZ soldier, but as can be expected, I hated them all and converted to a double agent as soon as I could. I was trained as a medic, and when the Eve wars were over, I got a job as a Winner physician."
Duo stared, hiding his astonishment. He'd been born on L2 as well, and had a brother, a twin who'd been with him at the orphanage. But he'd been killed. He had to have been. Everyone else was, and the orphanage had been burned down.
But Jase's height, build, violet eyes and yard long hair suggested otherwise. The look on Jase's face confirmed his own building realization.
"Well, Jase, we meet again." Their old names would never be used again, they both knew that. The past was best left alone, save the knowledge to both of them that their brother was not dead.
"Yeah. We meet again." Jase said, somewhat uneasily.
Duo had left Jase at his new quarters to get settled. 'What a day. Quatre's sister, ANOTHER gundam, AND my long lost twin brother. And to think, it started out with a nice, simple battle in space.'
He laughed at this tangled mess of screwed up irony that was his life, and decided to go see what he considered one of the best parts of it. Hilde was by far the most fun part of his life. Not to mention she was the hottest woman he had ever seen. He got a mental erection whenever he looked at her, and it took quite a bit of will power and forced remembrance of unpleasant images not to get a physical one when they were in close proximity.
The problem, and it wasn't really a problem, was that it was extremely difficult to think of unpleasant things while he was in Hilde's company. Not to mention she seemed to enjoy attempting to arouse him. He had no problem with THAT, though. Especially since she was able to do it without trying. But it was getting increasingly difficult to resist sexual impulses. Neither of them had any qualms about making casual references to sex, it was just something else to talk about. But it was turning him to thoughts that could all too likely steer them in a…NEW direction. Whenever she made an advance of some sort, or he did, she drifted a little further away, in his mind, from the teenage girl she had been when he met her. Doubtless she was slightly more sensible than he, and had watched him turn from boy to man. He had simply looked at her the night he had realized that she loved him, and he her, and it hit him that she was no longer a sixteen year old girl, but a twenty one year old woman. He had gotten used to it, for the most part. He had a sudden notion, and grinned. He turned on his heel, heading back for Hilde's quarters.
'Well, Duo old boy, shall we go and be sweet?' he chuckled to himself, wondering about where they should go tonight.
Segev walked to his quarters' window. His rooms had no balcony as the pilot's did, so he contented himself with a simple window. It was less obvious that way. He stood in the sunlight, spreading his arms to it.
"Report"
His only communication with his superiors was through this. It was an untraceable com link, built into his ear, and the wiring had been surgically implanted into arteries throughout his body. It wasn't even wiring, it was fiber optic, making it invisible to any sensors that he would happen to come across. It monitored his life signs and his muscle movement, BUT, it could only do so when he was in some sort of natural light. He was thereby restricted to sunlight, moonlight, or starlight. The comm had no internal power source, and would not alert any sensors or probes that way. Nothing would detect any unusual electrical field coming from him. It was powered by natural light, and did not charge. As soon as he left the direct path of the light source, it would break the link, and any unusual signals emanating from him would halt. The light, and thus power, intakes were inside of his eyes. A blink would only halt power intake for an instant, not enough to break the link.
"I know the layout of the building, and where the gundams are stored. I have a plan, and it will be complete within my time here." He whispered. A sound sensor had been implanted on the inside of a tooth, so he needed only to make the slightest whisper for his contact to hear him.
"You are doing well. I see by the monitor your blood supply has your Ros'salath at the desired level. Good. How goes the supply?"
"Fine. I have enough to content the addiction for another year." What he did not tell him is that he would have had enough for three years, if he did not intend to addict Relena. She was instrumental to his plan, but the dosage had to be higher than normal to chain her to it.
"Good. Remember, Segev, failure is not an option."
He felt the contact break, and reeled for a moment while the power dissipated. In this state, he was momentarily stronger and faster, for the extra energy in his system, but it quickly wore off. His vision cleared, and he regained his equilibrium. He was not a lackey, he reminded himself angrily. Not something to be used and thrown out. He would steal the gundams, yes.….but for himself.