Disclaimer:
*Sniff* I...I don't *sniff* own it! *breaks down crying!* Wahhhhh!!!

Authoress Note: Here's the original ending I had planned out for this fic, but I couldn't write it. You can go and read the old ending on my website, if you want to, but I think this one is much better, and it wraps up story elements that I left hanging before. Well, enjoy!

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Falling Angels: Chapter 11

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Emily landed on the colony near where Kay had left her mobile suit. She hopped out, and walked up to where Kay was yelling out orders to a groups of men and women.

"OK, you all understand that you're probably not getting out of here alive. We need to do everything we can to make sure it's not the same for all the others here. More shuttles are coming, even if they won't get here in time. If we can disarm enough of the bombs some of the people may survive long enough to get picked up."

She took a deep breath and continued. "If you don't want to help, stay here. Your families need you too. We will hold nothing against you." No one made any move to leave. "OK, then, here are maps of where the bombs are placed. These maps were stolen from the Nanashi base when the Preventers raided it this morning. The small red dots with numbers by them are the bombs. You all live here, you should be able to read the maps."

Kay pulled something out from behind her. It was a large crate. "This is what they look like. This is a bomb that has been disarmed. All you need to do to disarm one is pull out this large blue cable." she held up the only blue cable in the whole thing. "Dispite what you see in the movies, if you pull out the wrong cord, it will not blow up in your face. But, it might not shut off either. Pull out the blue one and check to see if the green LED has gone out. Once that is done, check up with me using one of the cell phones, and tell me the bomb number. Then I'll tell you where to go next."

She passed out the maps and cell phones. The phones were from all the people in a few of the evac groups that were willing to donate them but not actually help the disarming process.

Emily walked up to her and took a map and a cell phone too. Kay looked up at the older girl, and Em smiled at her. "I want to help too."

"OK! Help me organize the people." she said, beaming. Everyone was given a bomb number, and all of them set off to a different part of the colony, to disarm as many of the bombs as possible in the forty five minutes left.

Perhaps they could save a few people after all.

* * * * *

Cerena was getting nervous. She hadn't been there half an hour and was getting the feeling she might never get out. Soon the group reached it's maximum of 100 people. She didn't know why, but she was afraid they might never get out...the bombs may go off first.

She was re-thinking her plan. Others had people coming in private shuttles to pick up small families...and whoever else they could cram into it. She decided to look for Quatre....then his shuttle, with the distinctive Winner Corp. logo on it, flew overhead and out of sight.

With it flew away her hope.

Wait! her head snapped up. Chris! He wouldn't give up looking for me...he's got to still be looking for me....he's got to...

"Oh...Chris, where are you?"

* * * * *

Chris was desperately searching through the E section, just taking the time to scan the sign in list and search the crowd for red hair. No success, anywhere.

God, Cerena, where are you?

He looked around, and not seeing her around, he ran off to the next group.

* * * * *

Quatre, Duo, and Hilde were in the cockpit of his shuttle. Hilde looked as if she were about to cry. Quatre and Duo were simply silent, thinking of the friend they might lose, permanently, today.

Quatre said something, so low no one else heard it. "Heero, if you're down there, I'm sorry we had to leave. Relena, if you're down there, I'm sorry we left you behind..."

Duo spoke up, louder than Quatre. "May the Lord forgive us for abandoning our friends here, if we did so." He put an arm around Hilde's shoulder and held her tight. "It'll be OK, Hilde. I'm sure they'll get out. I'm sure of it. It is Heero Yuy, after all."

Quatre checked the clock. "Thirty minutes to go."

* * * * *

Kay's phone rung for the millionth time, it seemed. Under normal circumstances she would be quite annoyed. Under these circumstances, she was thanking the Lord for each and every one.

She quickly answered it, wrote down a number, than crossed a dot off the map. She then found a nearby dot, give him the number, and circled it. Her map had lots dots that were circled and X-ed out, but it had many more that were untouched.

Her phone rang again, and she repeated the process, making out a circled dot, and circling another one.

"We just might me able to do this." she said to Em, as she finished a call of her own.

"We just might." she said smiling. Then they both ran off to the closest bombs, to disarm them themselves.

* * * * *

Chris checked through the list, his heart beating wildly. Nothing. He scanned over it once more. She's not here...Wait! There it is, Cerena Dorlain! How could I have missed it?! He shoved the thought aside and began to look through the crowd. Only a hundred people where her, how hard could it be to find her?

Then he saw her. She was sitting on an old crate, and it looked like she was crying into her knees. He started towards her, but stopped when he saw Kay run up to her.

"Kay? What? Oh, dammit, I've got to save them both, I can't let either of them die!" he whispered. He started towards them, when he saw Kay pick up Cerena, and shoved her to the ground.

* * * * *

Cerena hit the ground hard. She expected another blow to follow, even though she didn't know why. But none came. She finally opened her eyes to see Kay prying open the crate she was sitting on. She got up and peered over her shoulder.

Inside was a mess of electrical components. She was about to ask what it was when Kay grasped a blue cord and pulled it out. A green LED near the top went out. Kay pulled out a map and marked down the bombs number, crossing out a small red dot.

"What--" she stopped as a strong arm turned her around and pressed her against a strong male body. She struggled a moment before she realized exactly who was holding her. "Chris!" she yelled out, her cry muffled by his shoulder.

She heard Kay's behind her. "Chris! Help us! We have a lot of the bombs disarmed!! There's only 20 minutes left!"

Cerena gasped. Twenty minutes? She was assured by the group leader the bombs were set to go off the next month, and the evacuation was only a precaution. She hugged him tightly. "Chris....we have to help her disarm them....we have to help as many people as we can survive." she said to him.

He looked down at the frail body in his arms, the frail body with a stomach of iron, a spirit of steel, and a heart of gold. "No."

"No?! But we have to help them!!" she couldn't believe him! No? How could he say no?

"No, I have to help them. You, and you, Kay, have to survive." he said, no, he commanded.

He released Cerena from his arms, but he didn't let go of her arm. He reached out and grabbed Kay.

"No! The clock is ticking! I have to disarm the bombs!" she yelled, trying to pull away from her stronger older brother.

He dragged the both of them to where Wing Zero was, nearby. It was difficult, but he got both of them into the cockpit. "The Gundam will withstand the explosion." he said, simply. He reached in, and grabbed the phone and map from him sister. "I will do this. The two of you must survive."

Cerena's eyes widened as he heard her words. "You...you mean you're going to...work until the.....until the...the end?" she asked, her voice faltering.

He nodded. Nothing else.

"No! You can't! You can't leave me! Don't leave me again! Chris! Heero! I love you! I--" her panicing voice was cut off by Zero's closing door. Once the door closed, he reached down to a hidden pad under an armor panel. By typing a code into that panel, he locked the door so it could not be opened, except from the outside, with the correct code. The incorrect code led to the Gundam's self destruction.

"I love you, too." he said. Before closing it, he set it so that correct code would appear on the inside screens ten minutes after the bombs were set to go off. They could get out, after they were safe.

He jumped down off the Gundam and set off towards the nearest bomb. Only ten minutes to go.

* * * * *

Cerena was sitting in the cramped cockpit, in the chair where he had so often sat, crying her eyes out. Kay was pounding on the door, yelling and screaming. She then started accessing the computers. She was determined to hack her way out of there.

"Dammit! It's hardwired into the Gundam! I can't open it. Shit!" she pounded her fists on the screens some more, hoping it might make a difference. She only stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's OK. He wants us to survive. How...How much time is left?" she asked, trying to dry her tears, only to have more take their place.

Kay called up a timer on the screen. "Five minutes."

Cerena nodded, and then settled in to watch the seconds tick by.

* * * * *

Chris stood alone, out in a field, staring at the colony that was about to sink. They had deactivated all the bombs they could get to, there was no way he could get to the other side of the colony in five minutes. Everything over there depended on Aaron, who was leading the effort over on that half the colony.

He heard someone walk up behind him. He turned to see red hair blowing in the wind, and flashing emerald eyes. "Hello, Chris."

"Hello, Em." he said, and turned back to the colony before him. They both stared at the colony that they could not save. They both spoke in a monotone.

"You do love her, don't you?"

"Yes." he admitted.

"Then why aren't you with her?"

"I needed to do this." he answered.

"But now you're done. Go to her."

"I won't make it in time."

"Lame excuse."

"So why are you here?"

"I have no where else to go."

"Lame excuse." Chris echoed.

"She loves you."

"I know."

"I love you too." Her voice turned whistful.

"I know."

"Do you pick her over me?" Emily looked at the ground.

He hesitated. "Yes."

She placed her hand on his shoulder, and turned him around. "A demon does not deserve an angel like you." she said, smiling softly. She reached up, and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Go to her."

"Em..."

"Why are you still here."

"Em...

"You two are meant to be together, forever."

"We will be." he said, mysteriously.

Her watch beeped, its high pitched tone cutting into the conversation.

"It's almost time." Em whispered. She grabbed his hand. "It's not to late-"

"It is." he squeezed her hand, "I always loved you as a friend... as a sister..."

"You'll always be my angel... and her's." Em said."

"No, I've fallen from grace."

"You haven't..."

"It's time to go home."

Then the ground erupted under them, the fire consuming them. But as their bodies disappeared forever, their spirits rose above the earth and into the heavens.

* * * * *

Cerena was thrown forward by the explosion, her head connecting harshly with the veiwscreen in front of her. The two of them were tossed about the cockpit like rag dolls. The death throes of the colony battered mercilessly them for several minutes. When the mobile suit came to rest, Cerena pulled herself off of the floor of the cockpit and somehow summoned the strength to turn on the veiwscreen. She had to confirm it... to make sure that it all wasn't just a dream... Oh, God, please let it be a dream...

The screen flashed yellow, then a view of the surrounding area filled them. Around them were millions of harsh, tiny stars, and everywhere, wreckage. Twisted hulks of metal floated past them, The entire colony was now just a memory.

"No..." Kay whispered, "Chris..."

"Heero..." Cerena breathed. A crystal tear slid down her cheek. "HEERO!!!!"

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This is the new chapter 11...actually, it's what I had planned out from the beginning, but I couldn't bring myself to kill Heero when I first wrote it. If you want to read the old ending, go to my website. *hugs for all*

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-Ayanami_Chan
ayanami_rei@softhome.net