Gundam Wing: Ended Waltz
By: Qasur Zephlar Exlarr
Chapter 3: Armageddon?
Shinigami and Heero ran to their suits and jumped into the cockpits. They lit up as they pressed the controls and buttons to power-up their massive machines of destruction. The screens blinked and fizzed before showing the inside of the construction room that they were using. The Neo Wing Zero walked forward, then it turned to the right and Heero fired the vernians causing the machine to dart at the door across the way. While in flight, he grabbed the double-barrel laser rifle out its storage area in the shield. As he rapidly approached the door, he fired the rifle at it in a circular motion. The lasers melted the door. It creaked before giving way and falling back, just as the huge mecha flew through it.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Solo yelled as he fired his thrusters sending his robot toward the newly created exit. He quickly did a 360-spin before zooming out through the open hole. "Heee Haaaww!" he screamed as he flew through it.
Heero flew into the room that he and Solo first trained in when they completed their gundams. He flew up the wall on the left side and laser-opened another hole to allow him to enter the assembly-line room building the mobile dolls.
"Solo, go outside and stop the suits that have already left," Heero ordered to his fellow pilot, and friend. "All right, but won't you need my help?" he asked back to him. "I might, but it's too dangerous. Remember out last encounter with the ZERO system? I just don't want to mistake you as an enemy, ok?" he explained. "Yeah," Solo said, "I understand." He walked his mecha to the door to leave. "Hey," he said getting Heero's attention again, "Good luck, and don't get killed."
"Likewise," he replied. "Shinigami is outta here!" he yelled as he sliced open the door with his thermal scythe, before flying out of the room.
As soon as he flew out, a group of mobile dolls picked him up on their radar. Beeping was heard in the gundam's cockpit as the two, small sub-screens in the pilot's chair showed the Mercurius and Vaye-Ate mobile doll's weapons and a description of the mobile suits. Solo already knew what he was up against though. He had studied the information on all of the gundams. He had not though, studied much on the old mobile suits that were made from titanium. His main screens showed little, blinking arrows moving around in the directions of the suits it scanned nearest to him, and the ones that had him locked onto him. "Shit!" he cursed out while engaging the active clock. He saw about 15 of the targets fall of the screen's radar lock. "Ha ha…lost me have you?" he laughed out before flying into a bunch of suits.
Heero flew into the assembly-line construction facility. Some of the suits targeted him. He spun out of the way of the Vaye-Ate's beam cannon fire. He timed it good enough so that the dodged shots hit the mobile suit construction equipment. While flying, he pulled out his double beam sabre and ignited it. He rammed it right through a Mercurius as he fly head-on into it, before spinning to slash more of the assembly line equipment. The Mercurius and the equipment exploded, blowing another completed, but not activated, Mercurius into molten pieces. Smoke and fire slowly started to fill the enclosed room, which now has a new enter/exit hole. Before he could realize it, Heero was slicing apart two of the rip-off gundams that were being made out of titanium for mass production. He flew up to a Vaye-Ate model and hurled the heat rod through the beam cannon. He retracted it, then flew off as the beam cannon's explosion engulfed the suit, destroying it. He ran into another Vaye-Ate head on. The impact from the head-on slam knocked it off the ground and into air. It slammed into some equipment in the assembly line. Heero returned the beam sabre to its storage place and pulled out the laser rifle. He fired both barrels at the suit. One of the shots went through the head, before melting down through the main body. The other hit and sliced the beam cannon in half. The suit exploded, blowing up the main construction equipment of the facility. The lasers had continued past the suit they went through and nailed two Mercurius' awaiting activation in a line of many. They both exploded, causing a chain reaction taking out another 3 of them. Heero was panting and sweating badly, his eyes were is a swirling daze of colors. He began to see things, but one of the Mercurius' shot him with its beam pistol and he jolted out of the daze. He just shot the laser rifle at it. It melted right though suit after bypassing its planet defenser shield system. It was in 3 pieces from the attack before exploding. Heero regained himself, then looked around and the room was burning, exploding here and there, and smoke was everywhere. It was hard to see anymore.
"Mission Complete," he said, "now to clean up the loose pieces." Heero engaged into a fight with 3 more mobile dolls in the thick of the smoke. He had a small edge on them because they couldn't see him, but the ZERO system could see them.
Outside Shinigami had destroyed many of the mobile dolls. He got an upper hand on them because most of them couldn't locate him unless he was almost in close combat with them. The Deathscythe Hell Fire came landing down in a group of mobile dolls as he brought his scythe down as well. The backend blades stabbed through a Vaye-Ate behind him as the planet defenser field stopped the front-end of the scythe. He quickly flew at it, passed the shield, and sliced the suit from the cockpit up through the head with an uppercut from the thermal warblades. Both of the suits exploded into remnants of hot titanium scraps.
Shinigami spun around and four giant blasts were heading toward him. One of them hit his chest and dissipated against his small, built-in planet defenser shield system. It knocked him back a bit from the hit though. Another one hit his knee and the planet defenser spike was snapped off and it hit the ground with a thud. The shield sparked and fizzed a bit before completely failing. "Damn those mobile dolls!" Shinigami said trying to get up while being hit with beam cannons. He fired all of the thrusters on the gundam at one time, which hurled him into the air, where he did a flip and came down landing on a Vaye-Ate. He swung the huge dual-beam scythe. He took off and flew right past a few more. He landed at the back of the group, where his pneumatic jets could be heard exhaling their pressurized contents. All of the Vaye-Ates suddenly exploded in a huge explosion with barely any sign of damage except a little glow from them. He turned to his right and punched a Mercurius that was flying at full speed. Its beam sabre, on its shield, was fully extended. The mobile doll didn't have time to take in the weapons that were about to hit it. The suit just flew into the fully extended thermal warblades on the gundam. They sliced the suit into two pieces. Each part went in slow motion as they past by on each side of the gundam, before they blew up next to the Deathscythe Hell Fire. "Made it through that one! Let's get going buddy, more suits for the Son of the God of Death to kill!" he said with his father's wicked grin on his face. His long braid was hanging over his right shoulder, almost in his face, but he didn't care. The vernians glared bright yellow before erupting and sending the suit flying into the air again.
* * *
While Hilde and Duo were watching TV during lunch, a special report from the news interrupted. They reported on a mobile suit battle that was in the city. "I thought that the news didn't talk about mobile suits on the air?" Hilde asked her husband. "Well, they aren't supposed to, but maybe someone goofed up or it's maybe it must be really important," he replied sternly. The reporter mentioned that no one should leave their homes and all people on the road should find shelter until the battle was over. She also mentioned that they were getting their first live feed from their cameraman on the field. They enlarged the picture from the corner of the screen. "Holy shit!" Duo screamed out, jumping up from the couch. Hilde gasped as her eyes widened at the video feed.
"That's a shit load of Mercurius and Vaye-Ate mobile suits!" Duo yelled out. He saw the battlefield clearly. It was dark outside with storm clouds around the city. There were pits of fire where suits were already destroyed. Other suits were going here and there shooting beam weapons at the suit outside. He ran over to the phone and called down to the Sweepers' Barge. "Hey, what's going on? They aren't after us, are they?" he asked the guy on the phone. He answered 'No', and that they went to a few of the destroyed suits. He told Duo that they were unmanned suits, which meant mobile dolls to Duo. "Thanks for the info, I'll be down there shortly," he said to before hanging up the phone.
"Duo, you don't plan on going out there do you?" Hilde asked him. "I am going, sorry Hilde, but someone has to stop those suits," he said back to her, kissing her forehead. "I know, but why you?" she said looking into his cobalt eyes.
"Hilde, don't do this, I've got to go," he said to her, smoothing his hand over her midnight hair. "It'll be alright Hilde. The God of Death has survived numerous times!" he assured her. Just then a report of a suit fighting back came in. Duo and Hilde walked over to the TV to watch. A huge black mecha sliced a blue suit in pieces, before it blew up. The suit turned around and the camera was able to pick up what it really looked like. It was standing in a pit of blazing fire. The eyes of the suit flashed before it took off into another suit, slicing it into pieces. "Tha… that looks just like Deathscythe!" Duo screamed aloud. "What's going on?!"
* * *
Heero came flying out of the smoking and burning assembly rooms after he destroyed all of the suits that were there. He was in Neo Bird Mode. He flapped the wings harder. The thruster fired and the suit came roaring out into the open, past the door chibi shinigami had cut down. He looked around and saw many piles of suits everywhere. There were also many blazing fires from some still-burning suits that were recently destroyed. He found an area of heavily concentrated suits and headed that way. He picked up the Deathscythe Hell Fire off to the far right, so he headed left into about two dozen suits. After a moment, a few explosions could be seen coming from where he disappeared off.
* * *
"Hey, that's the Wing Zero," Duo said shockingly, "but wait… it's different" Duo looked at the new suit that flew into view. "Babe, I've got to go now. I'm going to find Heero and the others, but please don't worry, everything will be alright," he said to his wife, giving her another kiss on the forehead. "Oh, tell the kids that I love them and not to worry about me being gone," he said turning to go. Hilde grabbed his arm and turned him around. She gave him a passionate kiss. "Duo, please come back to me," Hilde said as a tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek. Duo wiped the tear away smiling. "You know I'll be back my Angel of Death," he said to her looking deep into her cornflower blue eyes before running out the den.
* * *
Shinigami screamed as he brought the scythe down, slicing off the Vaye-Ate's arm that carried the beam cannon off. He did a spin and sliced it half. He flew off and it exploded. "Damn, there were a lot of these suits," he said wiping the sweat from his forehead. He also tossed his braid over his shoulder. "Only," he said looking at the computer read-out, "36 more suits left."
He flew up to a Mercurius, then fired the boosters sending him upwards a little, where he cut them and hovered. He then shot his lasers from his head unit and they bypassed the energy field and melted the cockpit area, before the suit exploded. Right before he could land, a Vaye-Ate shot at him. He spun around just to get hit by another Vaye-Ate behind him. That beam cannon shot went right through his left wing. It didn't explode, but left a gapping hole. "Shit!" he screamed as he saw what it had done to his suit. "What?! Aww… Damn it!" he screamed again as the loud alarms went off inside the cockpit. He was going to have a major headache when it was all over.
He ignited the warblades and flew at the Vaye-Ate that shot him. He did a 360-spin before banking far to his left. He fired the thrusters to stop him, then flew right up to the side of the suit. It was too slow to react to the faster suit. He quickly sliced it upwards, then stabbed into the suit. Molten pieces of titanium melted off of the suit as it glowed red from where he stabbed it, before blowing up. "Got ya stupid ass machine!" he said happily, with a wicked grin. "Now for your friend," he said as he took off toward the other one. He sliced off the head, as he flew over it, then landed behind it. He ignited the scythe and stabbed behind him. The thermal blades shot straight through the back of the suit. He pulled the scythe back and took off. The Vaye-Ate tried to turn, but exploded. The beam cannon that blew off of it landed nearly 20 feet away from the cameraman.
Heero spun in a circle with a few Mercurius' around him. He had the heat rod and double beam sabre spread out and they sliced about 8 suits apart, before they all exploded around him. He flew up to another of the Mercurius suits and sliced of its shield with the beam sabre, then, with the heat rod, beat off its arm with the beam pistol. Part of the arm melted, before the whole arm exploded off of the suit. The suit activated its shield, but it didn't help. Heero was too close and he stabbed it in the chest, before yanking upward, slicing the head and camera off. Soon after the suit's main body exploded upward, leaving just the legs on the ground. He took off toward another red-colored suit. He fired the head-mounted lasers at it, but they hit a planet defenser, blowing it up. Heero flew right past the dying shield, then stuck out the beam sabre as he flew past the suit, slicing it into 2 halves. The top half fell over, blowing up on the ground, then the legs blew up throwing one of the loose planet defensers into the camera of a Vaye-Ate. The blue suit started firing rapidly at nothing, but managed to hit and blow up two of its own Vaye-Ate mobile dolls. One stray shot dissipated against one of the Mercurius' shields. It then targeted the suit and shot it's beam pistol and blew off the leg of the Vaye-Ate. Heero hovered down behind the suit quickly, then jabbed the heat rod through it. He flew to the right toward another suit. The heat rod melted its way out of the Vaye-Ate, causing it to explode completely.
Heero put the beam sabre away because it was running out of power. He pulled out the laser rifle and fired a few shots at two more mobile dolls. They hit the suits and they blew up. Heero checked the radar and only 3 suits remained. He looked over at Shinigami and he sliced the remaining two mobile suits into shreds. They blew up as he walked away from them. He had a fiery background behind the black suit, as it's thermal scythes roared along with the flames in the darkened landscape. "Only you and I remain, Shinigami," Heero whispered to himself. "Hey, over here!" Solo yelled waving the, now out of power, scythe around. "I see you," he replied. "Let's get back to the warehouse, I see you need some repairs," he said jumping into the air, transforming the suit back into Neo Bird Mode. "Yeah, I kinda took some damage," he said flying up beside the suit. They both flew off to the old base.
* * *
Hilde switched the TV to the all news channel. She wanted to see what was going on. As if her question was answered, a special news report cut in on every station. It was Relena addressing the people of earth. Relena walked up to the podium to make her announcement. "Hello everyone. I would like to announce that the ORSC have declared their independence from the space colonies and the Earth Sphere," she started. "They have acquired many mobile suits and have rebuilt an aged battle station. We learned all of this nearly two days ago. Presently, they have acquired many space colonies into their organization under their new leader, Max Barton." She was under stress and pressure from them and at any moment was about to snap. Relena just couldn't believe what was going on.
"They used force and will continue to if we do not meet their demands. They wish to stop the Mars Project, as most of you know, it has gone on successfully for the last 15 years. They want to stop all projects near the outer rim colonies," she said to the viewing public.
"Presently, I have a messenger ship going to Mars. It shall return in a few days with the delegates of the planet and with news of what is going on. I have announced that the Earth Sphere will not join the ORSC's rebellion, and will stop them at all costs. A few lives have already been lost to this small rebellion and I hope that we can stop this before any more people have to suffer! I am issuing that all major ports be put under martial law. No one is to go to the space colonies. We are trying to gather as many people from the colonies as we can," she said taking a second to breathe, "they are being held back by ORSC mobile suits."
"The Preventors have been working around the clock to control the situation. We will keep you all informed on the situation as it continues. Every local News station will report after this announcement of the closest shelters to stay out and inform you all. Good luck everyone and I wish you all safety," Relena finished. The station switched to the local news as they started up the procedures of where to go for shelters.
Hilde jumped up and ran to the phone. She called the barge. Chris answered the phone. "Hey, can I speak to Duo?" she asked him. "Yeah, sure, he's bringing up his mobile suit right now," he replied. She heard a loud sound. The elevator reached the top deck. Duo ran and picked up the phone, "Hey babe, what is it?" he asked. "I just saw the news. There is probably going to be another war for sure now," she said to him. "Yeah, I know. I was just watching it also. I just talked to Relena before she made her announcement. She said that Heero went into space, so I'm going up there as well," he said to her. "Oh, I see," she said to him. "Ok, be careful Duo," she said. Her eyes were beginning to water. She was scared the last time he left to go battle in space. "I will babe," he said in a loving and caring tone. Hilde sighed on the other end. "Well, I've got to run, the suit needs some maintenance before I leave," he said to her about to hang up the phone, "bye sweetie, I love you." Hilde repeated "I love you" too, then gently set the phone down and just slumped down on the couch and brought her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her legs and sat there for awhile. "Oh, Duo…"
* * *
Heero had just reached space successfully in the repaired Wing Zero. He flew to a colony where there were people he could trust. He told Wufei and Sally to meet him there also. The Preventor's had already come to space and taken control of a colony, but it was going to be attacked soon enough. Good thing Heero called them early, because they left a decoy of them there when they left to head to the same colony he was going to.
Wufei met Heero in the mobile suit docks. "Yuy, what are you doing with that gundam?" he asked, with his arms crossed. "I'm going to destroy the Barton Foundation once and for all with it," he replied. Wufei smirked, "I thought it was destroyed," he asked. "It was," Heero replied. Wufei's eyes jumped at his answer. Heero pushed off from the cockpit and floated down to Wufei, then looked past him to see Sally and a little girl walking his way.
"Wufei, there you are," Sally said to him, "oh, hey Heero, glad you could make it." Heero nodded toward her, then looked at the kid. Wufei saw him looking at his daughter. "This is Nataku, my daughter," Wufei said as he looked toward her. She nodded toward Heero, "Hello."
"Well, I would have never guessed," Heero said looking at Sally. She was smiling. She then put an arm around Wufei. "Yes, it surprised many people, didn't it dear?" she said in his ear. He almost jumped, "Indeed," he said replied closing his eyes looking the other way. He still had his arms crossed.
Just then another mobile suit came flying into the hangar. It landed on the ground. Heero turned around and his eyes went wide. "It's the Tallgeese III," he said, "but it's damaged." The suit was indeed damaged. Parts of the suit were broken and some of the armor was cracked. Blackened burn marks were all over the suit. The cockpit slowly opened, with problems, and a tall person, with long, platinum blonde hair stepped out. He kicked against the suit and it pushed him toward the crowded bunch. He landed a few feet away from Heero. "Oh… it's you, Zechs?" he asked. "I'm afraid not. My name is Wind, Wind Peacecraft," the boy said removing his space helmet. "You're his son then," Heero said noticing an astonishing resemblance. "Yes, and who might you be?" he asked. "My name is Heero Yuy. Your father and I go a far way back," he said to him. The youth nodded. "I've heard all about it," he said to him.
"I just came here from Mars, I must see my Aunt Relena," he said to them. "She's on Earth," Sally replied to him. "Oh, I was told by my father that this was a safe colony to stop at. Help would be here he said to me. He also mentioned that the Earth Sphere would most likely be using it as the base of their operations," he informed them. "Well, he still knows some of the trade," Heero said. "Relena will be here in the next day. Zechs was right, they are going to be using this colony," Heero said to his nephew-to-be.
"The Preventors are going to take care of this problem. Oh, and Heero, Relena called me and said that Duo was coming as well. She had some more things to explain, but she said that Duo would tell you when he got here," she said to Wind and Heero. "Ok. We can use all the help we can get," he said to her. "Please, tell me why your suit is badly damaged?" Heero asked the youth.
"The Mars Base has been destroyed," he started off saying with pain in his eyes, "it was suddenly attacked by about 50 mobile suits. The asteroid defense suits, which are mainly made up of pure rocket launchers, were all destroyed, so we had no chance of fighting back." He said to them. "My father had taught me how to pilot them though…" Wind said. He lowered his head. "What is it?" Sally asked. "He brought me to this suit right after my mother died, she helped save my father and I," he said letting a tear escape. "Noin…" Sally said, covering her mouth. She let out a few tears herself. Wufei turned to let Sally cry on his shoulder.
Heero's eyes widened. "He shoved me into the cockpit and told me to get to Relena. After I turned on the suit, I saw my father run for cover, then there was an explosion and… I… I couldn't save them," he said. He had stopped crying. "Zechs…" Heero said. "Relena…" he said thinking about what she was going to do and say. "Let's not tell Relena what happened," he immediately told him, "I think it would be better if she didn't know just yet," Heero said to him.
"All right," Wind said, "but after I left the hidden place, I destroyed about 90% of the mobile suits that were attacking us. I then flew off toward the space port."
"The Barton Foundation has gone really low this time, that was cruel," Sally said. She regained herself and wiped her tears away from her eyes. Heero was still watching Wind, waiting for him to finish. "I barely managed to get a shuttle for the mobile suit, because they had destroyed most of the transports. I took off for here as quickly as I could," he continued to say. "That's not all though, I lost the transport while crossing through the asteroids. It was hit badly, so I bailed out. I managed not to get hit by any more getting out. I then flew toward a colony, but became attacked upon again by more mobile suits and a lot of mines," he said to them.
"Heh, that's the mine field they set up near the asteroids. And those were the mobile suits of the Barton Foundation; they were the ones who attacked you. They created their base from the 5 Outer Rim colonies, so you ran into the thick of them," Heero said to him. "Oh, damn, that's pretty bad. I guess I'm lucky," he said, "I took down a lot of suits getting away. I hid at a colony not far from here a day ago, but then left to come here once it was clear," Wind said.
"I'll get my people to work on your suit for you then, we can get it repaired," Sally said to him. She told them to come into the main office and they could continue to talk there.
* * *
A day later, Duo met Relena and the Earth Sphere's crew, heading toward space. He accompanied them as protection. He showed up just in time too. A squad of Taurus mobile dolls attacked them. Soon they arrived at Colony X-199987. "Relena, you're safe," Heero said as she came out of the shuttle. "Heero!" she said as she jumped to him. She kinda ran up to him and gave him a kiss. She was worried that Heero might have already gone into combat. She didn't want him fighting anymore, but she knew that he would bring peace back if anyone could.
"Aunt Relena?" Wind asked as he watched them. She stepped back, then looked at the youth. "Wind?" she asked as she smiled. She walked over to him and gave him a hug. "How are you?" she asked him. She had never met him before, only seen pictures that Noin had sent her. "I'm fine Aunt Relena," he replied. He didn't want to keep what he knew back from her, but Heero gave him a look that caused him to keep his mouth shut.
Duo jumped out of his custom-made, black Leo. "Heya Heero!" he said to him as he floated toward them. "Duo, How are you?" he asked in his melancholy voice. "I'm just fine," he replied. "Wu," Duo said nodding toward Wufei, who politely nodded back toward Duo, instead of insulting him and saying his wife was weak. "Hey Duo," Sally said happily to Duo. "Well, Hello Sally. Good to see you," he said smiling his usual happy-go-lucky smile.
"Let's get inside. We can discuss what's going on there," Sally mentioned, motioning everyone inside. Duo noticed that the mechanics were apart of the Sweeper's, so he ordered him to repair the mobile suits perfectly… and to work on his first.
"Relena," Sally said as they all sat around a conference table, "I'm sorry to say, but we have lost sight of the Peacemillion."
"What?" she said amazed. "How can you lose it? It's kinda big," she said sarcastically. "We need to find it. I hear that they have a beam cannon installed in it now," she said.
"They do," Lady Une said as she entered the room. "Sorry I'm late, I was taking care of business in California," she said. "Hey, I was in California," Duo said to her, "you wouldn't be talking about Edward, now would ya?" he asked. "Of course I was, that's where the battle was. I thought that was you in that suit," she said. "I didn't fight there," he replied. "What?" she said shockingly, "then who was piloting that suit?" she asked him. "Oh, you mean who was piloting the two suits," he corrected her. "Two suits?" she said, then mumbled something about stupid witnesses under her breath. "Yeah, there were two undiscovered suits that were fighting there and they were tearing up those others," he mentioned.
"That reminds me Heero, I wanted to tell you that I saw the Wing Zero and the Deathscythe again… only they were redesigned," he said to him. "Really?" Heero asked with a suspicious voice. "You mean we have new gundams out there and we don't know who the pilots are?" Relena asked, getting into the conversation. "Yep that's about it" Duo said smiling as he put his feet up on the table and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Well, that's comforting," Relena said giving Duo a death glare for his happiness with the situation. Even Heero was shocked at how deadly her glare could be.
Heero got up and walked out of the room. "Heero…" Relena said as he left. She wondered where he was off too. "I'll go find him," he said as he left the room. He caught him going down the hall to the elevator. He just followed Heero down to the mobile suit hangar. "Hey, where ya off too, Heero?" Duo finally decided to ask him as they walked into the large room. "I'm waiting for Trowa, I contacted him," he replied. "Oh, you did too, I knew where he was. He had previously been to our city with the circus a few months back," Duo said to him. "I know," Heero said. "He told me he was leaving after he made sure that his sister and her daughter were fine," Heero continued to tell him.
"Yeah, she is kinda over protective of him when he wants to fight," Duo said to him. "Yep, that's because she lost him once. It was when he was really young," he told Duo. "She later found him during Operation Meteor. When he got amnesia, she decided to brain wash him into staying at home," he continued to inform him. "Yeah, I remember that, she wouldn't let me near him when I found him at the circus," Duo said to him. Heero nodded. "She then lost him again when he decided to go off and finish his battle in space with us. She couldn't keep him there or he would have gone insane."
Heero looked over at the energy field that held the pressure in the room. He was looking outside at the starts. "She just worries that if she looses him one last time, he'll be gone forever," Heero said turning back to look at Duo. "Man, I didn't realize all of that," Duo remarked.
Just then, a carrier came to the mobile suit bay. Trowa stepped out in a space suit and pushed off from the Earth Sphere shuttle. He went right through the protective shield, but because he was floating above the level of the floor, he fell on the floor when he passed through the shield. Duo started to laugh as they walked over to him. Trowa got up, and took off his helmet off. "Duo, Heero," he said nodding to them. "Trowa," Heero said back to him. "Hey Trowa, good to see you again! Nice fall," he said. Trowa just looked at the happy pilot. It had been only about 2 months since he last saw him, so it wasn't a big reunion like Heero and Trowa, or some others. They all walked back to the conference room to continue their talk about what they planned on doing.
* * *
"Hey, Heero, I'll be back in a little while. I need to go see someone before I leave," Solo said as he hopped down from the lowering elevator. "Alright, I'll fix my gundam while you're gone, since there isn't much to work on," he replied to him. They had already repaired the hole in the wing of Solo's gundam. They also repaired the planet defenser shield spike that was damaged, plus minor nicks and scratches what were causing problems.
Solo ran outside to his motorbike that he and Heero fixed up. It was much faster than the bicycle he was using. He started it up and took off toward the circus. They had only moved to the city next to them, but since it was a huge city, it was a big move. Many residents who lived there didn't want to make the nearly 40 minute drive just to see the circus. It was just a little big longer drive. He wanted to make sure that Aria was going to be ok. He figured that his mother was waiting for him to return home, but he couldn't; at least not yet. He rode up to the circus and saw one end of a Vaye-Ate's beam cannon. It had crashed into one of the tall tents, collapsing it. He ran inside the gate and saw that no one was there. He saw some people still packing up on the other side of the large lot, so he rode over there. "Damn, I didn't realize that the mobile dolls got this far away from the base!" Solo cursed aloud. He rode up to a trailer. He jumped out and started walking up the stairs to see who was in it. The people yelled at him and told him to get out of the way, so he did. They thought he was trying to steal their stuff since the circus was abandoned. He jumped down the stairs and sat against his bike. He looked to his right searching, then to his left and stopped. There she was, with her mother. "Aria!" he screamed as he came running over to her. "Solo," she said to him, "what are you doing here?"
Duo quickly thought up something to say to her. "My mother wanted us all to go back to her house, since it's close," he said to both Aria and Cathy. "Oh, ok. We'll go right away," Cathy said taking her stuff over to the rental car she had. "Aria, when I saw the circus and what had happened, I was afraid," he said looking into her eyes. "Really?" she said, "That's quite thoughtful of you."
He smiled, "Yeah, I'm a thoughtful kinda guy," he said smiling to her. "I'll be leaving now," he said, "oh, don't tell your mother, but I'm not going to be there with you guys." He looked away from her. "Why not Solo?" she said in a worried voice. "I can't tell you that right now, but don't worry, I'll be ok," he said putting his hands on her shoulders. He brought his face close to hers. "Ok?" he said looking into her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be ok," he reassured her by smiling.
Aria looked into his cobalt blue eyes. He always stopped by the circus before he went to the base. "Oh, Solo," she said. He titled his head at the way she said his name. Before he knew it, she gave him a kiss. Solo's eyes were wide. He slowly parted his lips and she delved her tongue into his mouth. He was shocked, but happy at the same time; but it ended too soon. "That's for luck of your safe return," she said. She had a good idea at what he was planning on doing. She had found out, mainly by him not being able to keep his mouth shut, that he was going to that base nearby. She had tried to call him many times at home and his mother said he was always gone.
"Oh, Aria…"he said, "I will be ok, and", he said to her in a loving voice, that was low and barely heard, "thanks." He hugged her and gave her a quick kiss before running back to the motorbike he parked not far away. He jumped on it and started it up, before speeding back toward the military base. He took one last look at her and she smiled at him. He sped up and continued on his way.
Catherine walked back over to her daughter, who was watching Solo leave the circus. "Where did he go?" she asked her. Aria snapped out of her daze. "Oh, he had to run some errands for his mother first," she said lying for him. "Oh, ok. I guess you'll just have to see him later," she said to her daughter, who almost blushed. "You'll just have to give him another kiss later I guess?" she said too. Aria's face went totally red. Her eyes when wide, but she wasn't just looking straightforward. "Uhh..Y.. You saw us?" she said slowly looking up at her mother. Catherine looked at her daughter, but then she just nodded while smiling. "So, I guess you like him?"
"I do. He stops by here every week," she told her mother, "I know he likes me too, but he won't say it openly."
"Yeah, I remember the first time he stopped by, you messed up practicing, and then later that night you even messed up," Cathy said laughing. Catherine remembered that night clearly. Aria felt bad also for messing up, but Solo even apologized the next time he saw her for causing her grief that night. He knew things had to be done right. She didn't like her daughter getting in relationships because she was in a circus and it was constantly moving every month, but she knew the family, plus it made her daughter happy. She was feeling down a lot before she met Solo.
Aria was 17 now and very beautiful. She was tall, almost as tall as Solo. She wasn't big and she had developed into a beautiful young woman. She had deep green eyes and short, shoulder-length dark brown hair. Which she kept tied up during practice. Being in the circus kept her very fit, which Solo found very attractive too. She never had a real relationship before like this one. Solo had just turned 16 about a month earlier. He bought the wrecked motorbike instead of getting a car. He took Aria out on it once to go get lunch one day and they had the best time. Catherine just looked at her daughter was happy that she was a happy kid.
* * *
It took Solo only about two hours to go see her and get back. He started to park his bike inside the base now. Solo quickly darted into the facility and ran back down to the room with the gundams. "Hey, I'm back," he said as he saw sparks flying from the Neo Wing Zero. Heero stopped what he was doing and blew on the spot he was welding before rubbing it, then he lifted his black goggles away from his eyes. "All right, I just finished the last repair to my suit. We can leave when we're ready," he said climbing down the ladder. He didn't feel like waiting for the elevator that Solo used earlier to come back up.
"Ok. I think I'll go get changed and see what else is happening on the news," he said as he ran out of the room to their quarters. Solo flipped on the TV while he got undressed. He ran into the shower for a few minutes, before coming back out and getting dressed in a clean set of the same clothes he was wearing.
Heero jumped into the shower while Solo watched the news. He saw that the Earth Sphere had gone to space and set up a colony to work from. Heero walked out of the shower and got dressed. "Hey, Relena and the Preventor's are operating form Colony X-199987 now," he said to Heero. "Why did mother go to outer space to settle this?" Heero said to himself. He knew that she worked better from earth. "Since we've finished up our duties here, we should move on toward the colonies then, they need our help now," Solo said to him. "True, but the Preventor's are there. One of them is a gundam pilot," he said to him. "Oh, really?" he said back to him. "What's his name"
"It's Chang Wufei, I looked it up while going through the computer files on the Preventor's, I wanted to know who I might possibly be working with after this incident started," he replied to him. "Oh, ok. That's cool," Solo replied. He tossed his braid over his shoulder. "We'll leave in the morning at 07:00, ok, Solo?" Heero asked him. "Sure, I'll be ready," he said to him.
Chapter 4: Operation Clean Sweep
