Chapter 4: 23AD

            "Heero?!" Quatre shouted out, "How did you ever get the DNA of Heero Yuy?"

            "I have my sources." Stahr crossed his arms, "When labs and training areas are abandoned, marvelous things can be found."

            I stared at the clone, and it stared back at me. Just a lot of staring…

            "Meet HY Leader 1." Stahr announced, "Also known as H1. He, like T1, is the oldest in his squadron. The 12 others are all 15 years old."

            "Thirteen clones of the same person." I gagged, "That's disgusting,"

            "But he is your father."

            "He is NOT my father!" I screamed, "He may be the same man technically by blood, but he will never be the same personality wise or behavior wise."

            "You are correct, Miss." H1 said, "I will never be the father you had. Heh, for one this I am too young, and for another, it would be painful for the be call someone as beautiful as you my daughter." He raised and kissed my hand.

            I swatted him away in total disgust.

            "That is definitely not Heero." Quatre mumbled.

            "He's been hanging around with you too much." I said to Stahr.

            "You could say that," He replied, "I sort of adopted him as my brother, and T1 too. And T1 would probably be the same if it wasn't for his pesky little alcohol and suicide problem."

            Quatre huffed, "You let your genetically engineered "perfect" soldiers become like that?"

            Stahr turned to him, "Nobody is perfect, Mr. Winner. I believe that everyone is fated to develop in his or her way. All of the training and brainwashing in the world can never change a personality trait."

            My brain ticked, there is no way Stahr could be in his 20s, not even 30s with the knowledge he has and the age his creations could be.

            "I'm 52, Miss Peacecraft." He said aloud to me, "I rendered myself ageless at 26."

            Damn, I forgot he could read my mind.

            "H1 here, is 20." He said, "And T1 is 21. They were my guinea pigs, I made sure that they could develop properly before making their squadrons."

            "Who else do you have?" I asked. 

            "Only these two. I am unable to locate Duo Maxwell, Wufei Chang is with the Preventers, making that a stupid move on my part to go for him," He walked over to Quatre, "And Quatre Winner is right here in my grasp."

            He grabbed Quatre's arm rather quickly and pulled a syringe telekinetically from his desk.

            "No you don't!" I ran toward Stahr but his energy pushed me back into the arms of H1.

            "Angelica!" Quatre exclaimed in anger. Then he hauled off and kicked Stahr right in the gut.

            H1 let go of me to draw his gun, but I turned and popped him a fist across the jaw, then took his knee out with a fast kick.

            "Let's go!" Quatre ran out of the room, arms still bound. I followed him as fast as I possibly could.

            "Shit…" I hissed as we ran, "Where do we go?"

            We stumbled into a dead end of soldiers, fortunately no clones.

            "Nowhere from here." Quatre stepped back some.

            I heard an incredible explosion suddenly that rocked the entire compound.

            "What the?" I heard a voice from down the hall.

            "It can't be…"

            "It's a Gundam!" [I had to put it in there for the loving fans.]

            Smoke suddenly filled the hall and my visibility fell to zero. Then I felt a strong pull on my shoulder, causing me to turn around and have my arm grabbed instead.

            "This way." A voice said to me as it dragged me down the corridor.

            I really had no choice but to obey since I had no vision in the smoke, and I had no idea where we were going either,

            I suddenly lost the ground beneath my feet and fell onto what felt like a metal platform, then both of my arms were lifted up until I was entirely pulled into a clear area aboard a transport ship.

            I fell to my knees in exhaustion as I hacked the smoke out of my lungs.

            "Geezus, Quatre, you can't get away from the action, can ya?"

            "I suppose I should say thanks, Duo."

            Duo? I looked up and saw the American pilot standing with his hands on his hips. He wore the jacket of the Preventers, and his long hair was tied up into a ponytail, brushed straight back in the front. He looked so incredibly different then his picture in my book with his hair out if his face.

            He raised his eyebrow at me, widening a violet eye.

            "Partner in crime or innocent bystander?" He asked me.

            "Uhh…" Not that it required much thought, but I wasn't sure.

            "This is Angelica Darlian." Quatre spoke up, "Heero and Relena's daughter, remember?"

            "Oh yeah!" Duo scratched the back of his head, and then jerked me to my feet shaking my hand.

            "Such a pleasure to meet you! Wow! Heero's kid, huh? Kinda makes you wonder when those two actually had the time to screw…"

            "Maxwell!" An arrogant voice bellowed from above.

            "What? I wasn't going to say anything vulgar!"

            Chang dropped from a hatch overhead and landed on his feet next to me.

            "Ahem." He cleared his throat and looked at the grinning Duo.

            "Still the same after so many years." Quatre smiled, "Ang, this is Wufei Chang."
            I blinked. Both Duo and Wufei in one shot? And I couldn't even find them apart on my own.

            "Pleased to meet you." I said softly.

            Wufei just sorta looked me over, then stouted, "Likewise." Before walking toward a door out of the cargo hold we fell in.

            From what I remembered from his picture in the book, he looked exactly the same, just slightly older. Figures, Asians don't appear to age as much as Caucasians. Of course I'm half Japanese myself, so we'll have to see. Why did I let my train of thought slip like this? Let's continue.

            I looked back to Duo and Quatre, only to find them engaged in their own conversation. I decided not to intrude and just sit down.          

            The limited gravity mechanism activated as the ship ventured out into open space, and I slowly felt my body slightly rise off of the chair.

            A door opened a few panels down from me and out walked a girl, no older than 18.  She was extremely thin, and her long black hair was tied into a loose braid, and her face was obstructed by long chunks of free hair. She wore half a spacesuit, like the kind pilot's wear, and the other half she held in one hand, her helmet in the other.

            She walked in my direction, not paying much attention to me, and tossed her helmet in the seat beside me. She then began to tie her jacket around her waist.

            I figured she was the one behind the "Gundam" back at the base, and I took the liberty of speaking up.

            "Hello."

            Her eyes shot up and pierced right through her thick hair right at me. For a moment I thought she was actually going to reply, but instead she picked up her helmet and walked passed me.

            So much for that...

            When she reached the other two talking, she was ushered away and returned to sit by me.

            I looked over at her, and said, "Thank you."

            "For?" Woohoo, a reply…

            "Saving me at the base."

            "Oh, welcome."

            "I'm Ang."
            She looked at me, "Ang?"

            "It's short for Angelica."

            "Oh. I'm Hell."

            "Hell? That's unique."

            "It's short for Helga, Helga Maxwell."

            "Ah, so you must be Duo's daughter, nice to meet you. I'm Heero Yuy's daughter. Fallon Angelica Yuy, Darlian, Peacecraft, pick one."

            "Peacecraft huh?" Lucky you."

            "Why do you say that?"

            "You can be the ruler of the word with a name like that."

            "My mother was, twice. I have no intention of following in her footsteps."

            "So you intend on following in your father's instead?"

            "No, I plan on making my own."

            "How noble." She sneered.

            "Well, you don't seem anything like your father from what I see." I crossed my arms.

            "Well, you don't know my father then. I'm incredibly a lot like him." She looked toward me with a glint in her violet eye and a smirk on her lips, "For I am Death."

            She got up and walked over to her father who had stopped talking to Quatre. I wonder when an appropriate time would be to be able to tell Duo that his daughter has issues.

            We flew for about another 30 minutes until we reached the old lunar base; now established by the Preventers and their facilities.

            Hell jumped out of the ship first to go order around the mechanics and techs that were undocking her Gundam from the transport.

            I walked out and became overwhelmed at the entirety of the base. Absolutely everything was state of the art, even more so than the Ironcross base.

            Everyone who was on the ship walked passed me and I had to run to catch up to them. Quatre put his hand on my shoulder and motioned for me to walk with him. We went down several corridors until we came into a large conference room.

            "Ah good, Miss Darlian and Quatre have been recovered safely."

             I looked at the source of the voice, which was a woman no older than 30 sitting in the head seat of the table. I didn't need introductions, I knew everyone sitting at that table.

            From the head chair, which was Mariemeia Khushrenada, to her left was Sally Po, and to her right was Lady Anne Une. Across from them, were Zechs Merquise and Lucrezia Noin.

            I stumbled back at the sheer power that was seated before me. Never once did I meet any of these people, even with the mother I had.

            They all stood up and game over to me. To ME.  I couldn't believe it. If I could consider these people historical celebrities I would.

            After I got my share of, Oh you look like your father! Oh you look like your mother! You're father is a hero! You mother is a bitch, er, strong leader, I took my seat at the table and Quatre left the room. Eep.

            "Welcome to the Preventer Moon Base, Miss Darlian. I'm sure you have many questions, but I assure we will answer them all." Mariemeia said, "I will cut straight to the point. You see, we at the Preventers have begun a new project in order to stop the advancement of the Ironcross Organization. We call this operation "23AD".

            "23AD simply stands for 23 years after the destruction of the original Gundams. We have constructed 2 new mobile suits, as well as acquired a retired fleet of space Tauruses to deal with the problem at hand. As for our pilots, I believe you have already met Miss Maxwell, we also have Zieb Merquise, Zech and Lucrezia's son, and 3 other pilots we will be rotating out."

            "Who are the other three?" I asked, getting a sick pitting feeling in my stomach.

            Anne Une spoke up, "We will get to that in just a moment. You see, we have known about the Ironcross genetic experimentation for quite a while now, and have prepared our own counteraction to it. I suppose that while you were captive at Ironcross, you came across the officers T1 and H1?"

            "Yes." I said rather warily, fearing what was going to come in the room. I was right.

            "Allow us to introduce pilots 01, 02, and 03."

            Heero, Duo, and Trowa respectively; how wonderful.

            I sighed, "So instead of stopping then enemy from producing their clones, you go ahead and do it yourself."

            "There is no opposition for a perfect soldier but another perfect soldier." Zechs said quietly.

            I put a hand to my head, "I don't understand the world anymore." I mumbled, then got up and left the room.