Chapter 4

I opened yet another door in my attempt to locate Sandrock and swore as a bullet zoomed past my head. There were guards in said room. I ducked as another bullet come my way and ran for the other side of the hanger. I could see mobile suits everywhere, Taurus, Leos...and even some Virgos. I dodge some more bullets and cut a corner. A shadow looms in front of me.

I mutter a silent thank you to Allah as I gaze up into the face of my Gundam. There it stood, like it was sent from heaven. I know I'm over reacting, but I've been through a lot.

Shots ring past my head and one grazes my leg. I swear quietly and duck behind Sandrocks' foot, firing back and killing the three guards. I hit the ground switch for the cockpit and my lifeline comes out even before the platform's fully opened. I grab it and am lifted up the length of my Gundam, who is peering ominously at the soldiers below me. A couple shots fire around me, making a soft 'ping' as the Gundanium reflects them. I fire back, missing for the most part, as my good arm's holding the cable pulling me up. I hop into the cockpit of Sandrock and close the platform.

Once enveloped in the familiar confines of my Gundam my thoughts focus. All fear, pain, and distress that I'm feeling flow to the front of my mind as each of the Gundams interior lights flicker on. I turn those feelings against the now shouting people outside. I can see them now, through the vid screen, scrambling and scurrying like the insects they are. They're way below me, where they belong, and nothing, nothing is ever going to let them rise. They'll die for the pain they've caused me.

Look at them, running for the mobile suits, like that's going to stop me. Everyone knows a Gundam plus a Leo, Virgo, Taurus, or Aries equals a pile of scrap and said Gundam. But everyone thinks that they'll be the one to stop me, to kill me with a puny piece of material like those I see below me.

I chuckle coldly as Sandrock lifts his head. "What do you think buddy, time to exterminate those bugs?" I ask him. I can feel the green glow of the control panel across my face. People look up at the Gundam as I speak to it. The outside speakers are on. Good then, I think, they'll be able to hear me laugh as I squash them like bugs.

Sandrock and I are one, and I laugh coldly as Sandrock lifts his feet, an extension of me, and brings it down on a scattering of soldiers. They scream and my cold laugh rings through the building. My scimitars slice through the suits in font of me. A moment of silence is heard before a ball of fire erupts around me, blowing away the wall of the hanger. Walking through the fire, I step into the sunlight of the outside world. I hear a faint buzzing above me, like that of an annoying mosquito before it's smacked into oblivion.

My scimitars come up and slice that mosquito-Aries in half. I shoot around me at everything that's caused me so much pain. Fire comes from everywhere, the fires of Hell taking back the rogue souls that escaped them. I can hear screams and the clanging of metal through the roaring blaze, I laugh loudly. Loud enough so that the souls, when escorted to Hell, get whipped for disrupting the devil.

I look around me, all that lies here are piles of rubble that used to be mobile suits, and what looks like the charred remains of many people. I shake my head, trying to get rid of the familiar feeling. Familiar from when though? I think back, and I can't remember when else I've had this feeling. Was it me who destroyed everything here? I'm not capable of such an amount of destruction. The only other time I've come close to this, I think as a flash of the Colony I destroyed is laid over the pile of rubble in front of me, the only other time......

Realization hit me and my hand slams down on the hatch-release button. I scramble out and fall to my knees on the platform, almost toppling off as I retch onto the ground far below me. Tears seep from my eyes and I'm soon sobbing uncontrollably on the edge of my Gundams' platform. I stop as I'm about to throw myself into oblivion. Duo's face flashes before me, smiling and encouraging. The magnetic message appears behind him, the gaudy colours expressing his love for me. The face of my beloved turns somber, worry shows through those expressive eyes. He's mouthing something, I recognize my name. A hot pain slices through my chest, grief and sorrow tenfold of whatever I've felt before. I clutch my chest and shift to a sitting position the pain fades, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and the tears with my other. A look of determination comes over my features and I stand, turning to enter Sandrock again. As I start up the engine one thought enters my mind.

I'll make it home to my love, war or no war. I'll always be with him.