Chapter 19
"Commander, what are you doing?!" yelled a guard as he ran past the older man, who was heading into the building that was preparing to blow up.
"Stopping the detonation!" yelled back the Commander, "You fools were supposed to guard that room!!!" with that the Commander left the soldier and ran around the corner into the main room of the bases main building.
"One minute to detonation." came the computerized voice as the Commander reached the main computer and began to type quickly into it.
"Those fool guards! How'd this happen?" he muttered as he went through the difficult and time consuming procedures of shutting down the self destruct.
"Ten seconds to detonation." signaled the need for quickness.
"One damn minute you rotten computer!!! Just a few more seconds and—there!" the lights in the room stopped flashing as the Commander typed in the last command and collapsed in a nearby seat.
"Self Destruct avoided. Please resume regular duties." the computer's voice said over the faint noise of the battle outside.
"Now, that girl...is she still in here?" he wondered to himself as he saw the dead guards. "Fools." he growled and stepped past them into the room where Relena's prison was. "No, she's not here, I should have known it to be so. Must be a very good soldier if he can kill those guards," He muttered as he again stepped over the dead guards, walked out into the hallway and up the stairs back into his office, "they were the best I could buy."
The Commander once again resumed watching the battle as he saw the two new MS, the Gemini, out on the battle field. He noticed they had picked their target, and were maneuvering around to opposite sides.
"Yare yare, this is working out perfectly. Save for the minor alarm earlier, I think this will be one of the my greatest and easiest won battles." He smiled as his dark hair shadowed his eyes and he continued to watch the scene unfold in front of him.
* * *
"Quatre! Who's that running from that building?" yelled Trowa over the comm. unit, referring to a small figure that was racing towards Quatre's Gundam.
"Lys?! It's Lys?!?!" Quatre yelled as the girl reached the foot of Sandrock and he lowered one of the mechanical arms to pick her up while he shielded her with the other.
"Lys?!" Trowa yelled back into the comm.
"Hai! Trowa, take care of these MS while I get here back up here, Ok?" Quatre didn't wait for a response as he slammed his fist down on the button to open the platform.. Lys jumped into the cockpit of Sandrock only to be swept up in a hug from Quatre. Getting over her surprise, she quickly broke away and lunged past Quatre.
"What are you doing?!" he squeaked as he was pushed to the side and Lys grabbed the controls of the Sandrock, swinging the arm around in a wide arc, cutting three approaching Aries in half.
"Saving your life." she answered simply and turned back to the shocked blonde boy.
"How'd you know?" he asked, bewildered since the machines never came up on his any of his screens.
"I saw them when you were lifting me up here." she shrugged.
Quatre hugged her once more, "Don't you ever do that to me again." he whispered to her.
"Do what? Save you're life?!" She asked him, her head in his shoulder.
"NO, silly. What on Earth possessed you enough to make you want to jump out of this Gundam?" he asked, a tear rolling down his cheek, though she couldn't see it as his head was buried in her dark hair.
"I wanted to help you." she whispered back.
"You saved my life," he pulled away and grabbed her shoulders, "that's enough help right there." He whispered as he moved in and kissed her. Lys's eyes widened but quickly closed as she leaned into the kiss of the blonde haired boy. When he broke it off she was disappointed.
Quatre smiled at her and sat back down in his chair, telling Trowa he was back. He looked out the vid screens at the 30 or so suits left and saw the building Lys had just ran from explode in a shower of flame and smoke. He looked back, very surprised, and found her smiling.
"What happened there Quatre?!" yelled Trowa, once again over the comm., "Did you do that?! Is Lys all right?!?!"
"I'm fine Trowa," Lys answered, "I did that."
"Nani?!" yelled Quatre, "How'd you manage to do that?!"
"When there's a big red button that says 'Danger, Do Not Press' and you press it," she explained, "you know something like this will happen. Besides, I told you guys I'm an expert when it comes to blowing things up."
Quatre's laughter was soon accompanied by Trowa and Ami's as they resumed battling.
* * *
Heero was the first one to reach the exit doors of the building and pushed through them, looking around for danger. He heard the computer signify something in the back ground.
"Ten seconds to detonation." was what the computer said.
"Come on.!!!" he yelled and raced across the battle field, motioning Relena to follow him. "Reena, you get back to Duo!" he yelled to her as he picked Relena up and jumped into the waiting Gundam.
"Duo!!!" Reena yelled into the portable comm. unit Heero had given her, "Get me the hell out of here now! The Angel of Death lives!!!" She added with a smirk.
She saw the Deathscythe turn to her after he cleared the area of enemy MS with a quick sweep of his beam scythe, and lower his hand.
"Good job Reena!!!" came Duo's voice over the outside speakers of his Gundam. She ran to jump on the lowered hand when she heard a whistling of air and a loud 'smack' as something hit the Gundam. It was followed by another one. Reena looked up to find two long cables attached to the Deathscythe, each one connected to a tan colored mobile suit that she had never seen before.
"Nande kuso—" she heard Duo's voice over the outer speaker, followed by a scream as a white light ran along the two cables into the Deathscythe.
"Duo!!!!!!!" she screamed when she heard his cry. The cables, she realized with a shock, they're wires. Oh no!!!
The Gundam knees buckled and it heaved down to the ground, knocking the no longer glowing Beam Scythe to clatter by it's feet. As it's lights flickered out the platform of the Deathscythe fell open and Duo rolled down and onto the ground, now three feet below the slumped over Gundam as a throng of soldiers ran out of a nearby building. Reena started to run to his side when she saw him being grabbed by the soldiers.
"Duo!!!!!!" she yelled and saw a hint of movement in him. He turned back to look at the girl who the soldiers couldn't see and mouthed.
'Gomen nasai Reena, gomen. I lied to you.' Before he once again fell limp.
"No...I was the one who was supposed to die...not him." She felt her tears streaming down her cheeks as she fell to her knees. She realized what she was doing, "No, I won't do this." She said, forcing her self up, "I won't let this happen!!!" She yelled and ran into the Gundam, grabbing the pole of Duo's personal Beam Scythe. She raced toward the back of the group of disappearing soldiers as a building far behind her exploded and another one released a large group of MS.
The Beam Scythes' blade suddenly flashed on as Reena jumped off a somewhat high ledge into the middle of the small army of soldiers. She swung the laser blade of the scythe around in a circle, pivoting on her right foot as she took two steps and slew another five men.
"Attack!" yelled a man closer to the front and the men carrying Duo ran for the building as the rest turned to fight her. They spread out and drew their swords.
Reena, who had been merely acting on impulse realized the mistake she had made. She had no idea how to use this weapon of Duos and she was injured. A memory dawned on her: Kendo class, where you learn to battle with a long wooden stick which can prove to be lethal if handled properly, and Self Defense classes, where they taught you a variety of moves that could injure or disable your enemy, and also moves to help yourself. She was forced to take these lessons by her father. And fencing was her favorite sport, one of which she excelled at. Trying to make do with what she had, Reena combined the knowledge she had of the sword, the fist, and the stick to try to help her with this weapon.
Three soldiers advanced at her from three different angles, all had swords. She ducked as the closest one made a slash towards her shoulder and used her right arm to bring the blade of the scythe around in an arc . As her weapon had more reach than her attackers, she succeeded in separating his body into two parts. She rolled to the side and brought the pole of the scythe up in front of her in a move she had learned from her Kendo classes, and blocked the downward slash from her third opponent. Kicking up with her foot, she connected square in the groin and the mans grip loosened noticeably. She kicked with both her feet at the mans' stomach and rolled to the side as she tilted the scythe pole and effectively deflected the mans' sword. Reena jumped up and quickly drew the laser green blade of the scythe through the mans' body, slicing him in two pieces. The man fell to the ground with a look of surprise permanently frozen on his face.
The final man of the original three that attacked her was joined by four others that were coming at her from all angles. She pushed the end of the pole back and ducked when she heard someone charging at her from behind. The attacker doubled over from the pole and sent his sword through the chest of the man on front of Reena. She quickly brought the scythe around in a full circle around her body, slicing them both in half, and shifted her hold on it to both hands as she stepped into a wide swing. Her agility to surprised the men for about three seconds before they lay dead on the ground as well.
Reena used the momentum of her swing to carry her into a roll and came up to face her final two enemies. Kicking into a running charge at the closest one she let out a yell as she plunged the end of the scythe into the ground and used it to vault into the air and give her more strength to her kick, which connected square in the jaw of the man. Rolling forward to her knees when she landed, she sliced in an upward hook into the second soldier, and continued the motion into a circle as she stood up and brought the scythe to hook down into the first man.
