Once they reached Earth, Heero moved to the bridge to see what would happen. He predicted a large battle, and he hoped that the Pax group would have the sense to try to move it away from the planet. The last thing they needed was the earth being endangered by reckless fighting.
"We've arrived at Earth, sir. Rebel forces are protecting it heavily." An officer said. "The Earth fleet has just arrived."
"Fire on the rebel fleet. Give cover to the Earth ships!" Dorothy yelled from her position beside Powell's chair.
"Ignore that order," Powell said softly.
"Sir?" Dorothy turned to him.
"Dorothy, you're too impulsive. You've jumped into this battle without seeing which side you're actually on." Powell smiled.
"What?"
"Fire on the Earth ships. Send a message to the rebels. Tell them that their leader has arrived."
The officer at the front hesitated only a moment before carrying out the orders. Heero drew his gun as Dorothy stepped back.
"What's going on?" Heero asked.
"The name 'Powell' belonged to a dear friend of mine who died in the war. My true name is Blanc. As you can probably guess, Pax is just a ruse." Powell said calmly.
"No!" Dorothy yelled.
"You started this." Heero said more than asked.
Powell nodded.
"Then I'm going to kill you," Heero raised his gun and prepared to shoot.
Dorothy jumped in front of him, "No! Don't!" She turned around so that Heero's gun was at her back, "Mr. Powell, surely you don't mean that everything you said was a lie! You believe in peace, right? That's what you told me!"
"Peace is dead. They killed it. I'm trying to set things right." Powell answered.
"But, Mr. Powell!"
"Dorothy, move!" Heero said.
Dorothy paused for a moment before stepping aside. Heero wondered briefly why Powell didn't seem worried when he pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. Heero pulled the gun back and stared at it as if that would make bullets magically appear.
"Oh, yes, Heero. I took the liberty of alleviating you of your ammunition. We couldn't have an armed man running freely around our ship, could we?" Powell said.
"What now?" Heero asked.
"Do what you will. I have no wish to kill you now. We accomplished our goals despite your interference." Powell wasn't paying any attention to him.
He was overconfident. Heero could tell. Powell thought that he had already won.
"Come on," Heero said to Dorothy.
"Where are we going?" Dorothy followed him as he left the bridge.
"We're going to Earth. Once we get the capital back, the rebels will be nothing more than some ships in space."
"What about Mr. Powell?"
"Let him play his games. I'll take care of him later."
****
"We're having to step things up. We're moving in." Duo frowned as he heard Sally's voice come through the communicator.
"Gotcha. What's happening?"
"Pax is attacking the Earth fleet. They're working with the rebels."
"What? Are you sure?"
"We're watching it on the monitor now. What's your position?"
Duo looked around. "Um...broom closet in the government building." Hilde lazily tapped her fingers against a broom that was leaning next to her. "They've got guards right outside. It's the first place we managed to duck into."
"Okay. We'll meet up with you. Gotta go."
"Good luck."
Duo leaned his head back. They'd been waiting in the damn closet forever. It had taken a lot of sneak work to get in, and when they had seen guards coming, they naturally ducked into the first room they found. If only they'd known that the stupid rebels would stand right outside the door TALKING for hours. Man, did they ever shut up?
Duo knew that if they hadn't run into this obstacle, they could've gotten to the offices and probably could've taken care of that traitor, Brax, by now.
Hilde nudged his foot with her own and mouthed, "Listen."
He strained his ears to hear something and finally noticed a deep rumbling sound. The guards' voices outside picked up.
"That's an explosion," he whispered back to her. But Wufei and Sally couldn't have gotten here that quickly.
He heard another explosion, closer this time. The guards were running away so Duo poked his head out to see what was going on. The hallway was empty.
"Come on, Hilde! Time to go!" He yelled behind him and ran down the corridor. He heard her footsteps behind him.
The offices should be upstairs...but where? They might have to wait for Wufei, otherwise they'd just get lost wandering blindly around the huge building. Duo rounded a corner and nearly collided with the not-so-nice end of a gun. He instinctively raised his own gun. Then he noticed who it was, and he relaxed.
"Heero! Where've you been?" He exclaimed. Heero slowly lowered his weapon.
"Are you trying to find Brax?" Heero asked, ignoring Duo's question.
Duo nodded, looking at the blonde standing behind Heero. She seemed vaguely familiar somehow...
"You're going the wrong way. It's this way." Heero started walking back the way Duo and Hilde had came.
Duo followed, "Should've known it was you with those explosions. Well, you owe me an apology, pal, leaving me in the hands of the enemy like that. What a way to treat a friend!"
Heero stopped and turned slightly, "I'm sorry."
"Yeah, well - Wha?" Duo froze as Heero started walking again. He hadn't expected the guy to actually apologize. And that sounded sincere, too. Well, that just meant that he was making progress.
"Duo, come on!" Hilde grabbed his hand and ran after Heero and the other girl, who were already far ahead of them.
****
With all the fighting going on above Earth, it hadn't been hard for Trowa to find a spot on the planet to land. The trouble was figuring out where the others were. Trowa supposed they'd be at the capital. The trouble was that the capital seemed to be in a state of chaos at the moment. Armed rebels were clearing civilians out of the city, entirely.
Trowa had his gun out and attempted to blend in. The rebels didn't wear uniforms so they would think he was just another soldier. He could hear some explosions in the distance. That settled it. The others were definitely here.
"Trowa?" He heard somebody say his name. Trowa turned around to see Wufei approaching him. "We've been wondering where you went to."
"I've had some things to take care of. Quatre's out of action for now. I take it we're heading to the capitol?"
Wufei nodded, "Duo's already in there." He paused. "Though I don't recall him having that many explosives."
That might mean that there was somebody else helping them. "Let's go." Trowa said.
****
"What the hell are they doing?" Noin shouted as the Earth ship rocked under the combined attack of Pax and the rebels. She put a hand against the wall of the corridor to brace herself.
"A clever trap. They lure us back to Earth, letting us think we have the upper-hand, then they turn the tables on us." Zechs frowned. "Get to your fighter, Noin. We're not backing away from this one."
"What about you?" Noin asked.
"I'm staying here for now. I'll help coordinate the attack."
Noin shook her head. That wasn't like Zechs at all. Zechs never liked playing behind the scenes. He was always out in the middle of the battle...even at times when he shouldn't be. Noin knew that. And she knew that if he were staying, that meant that we was planning to do something completely crazy.
"Noin, they'll need a good pilot like you out there," Zechs said.
"And what about a good pilot like you?" Noin replied.
"Noin," Zechs reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her close to him. "You have to go. Trust me when I tell you that I'll be alright."
She trusted him. She had to. They'd been through so much together, it would be impossible to have done any of that without trust. She backed away.
"Fine," she said, turning around to get to her fighter. "But don't die on me, Zechs."
"I don't intend to, Noin."
****
While Duo might have needed some crafty trick to get into the capitol, it was a piece of cake for Wufei and Trowa. Most of the guards had gone elsewhere, and portions of the fence had already been completely blown out.
The two ignored most of the rebels. They were focused on the higher-ups. The people who were running the rebellion. Once they were gone, the rest would fall apart.
"There you are, Wufei!" Wufei saw Sally come running up to him. They'd decided to split up to strengthen their chances of one of them getting in. It seemed they shouldn't have worried.
"Heero's here," Sally said. "They're going after Brax. We need to find Kav."
"Kav?" Trowa asked.
"Representative from the L2 colonies. He sided with the rebels on this one. Shot Relena Darlian and ran away." Wufei explained.
"How do we know he's here?" Trowa said.
"Where else would he be?" Wufei said.
****
Heero wished he didn't have 3 people in tow with him. Duo would be okay. But Dorothy and Hilde would just get in the way. The upper offices were pretty much empty, but Heero could hear the rustling of papers from down the hall. Somebody was still there.
Heero motioned for the two girls to stay back as he crept quietly down the rest of the length. The office door was open and Heero could see Brax, the president that had betrayed them, busily gathering papers into a briefcase. Heero swung around into the room, bringing his gun up.
Brax dropped the papers and held his hands in the air, obviously surprised by the intrusion. "Okay! I surrender!" He closed his eyes.
Heero walked forward, gun still up, and looked into the briefcase. A lot of money and other miscellaneous papers. Typical crooked politician. Willing to give up peace and the lives of his people for some money. It was very tempting just to shoot him and rid the world of one more corrupt person. What point was there in fighting for peace when there'd always be people like this?
Heero felt somebody place a hand on his arm, pushing it down.
"Hey, Heero. He surrendered." Duo said quietly.
Brax looked downright terrified. Heero knew that he could be very intimidating when he wanted to be.
Duo walked forward, pulling the briefcase away and placing his pack on the desk. He pulled out some rope.
"Sorry, but we're gonna have to tie you up for the moment. We have other things we need to get done. I'm sure you understand," he said.
Brax just gulped and nodded.
"Duo! Out the window! Look!" Hilde rushed in shouting.
Heero turned to look out of the large office window. He could barely see it. Two specks in the sky, coming closer. Falling to Earth? He felt Duo come up beside him.
"Damn," the other pilot muttered.
The objectives had changed. Heero turned and ran out the door. He was sure he could find a fighter somewhere.
****
"Sir, the Pax ship is trying to get around us!" The officer at the helm yelled.
Zechs just nodded. He knew that the Blanc would want to get to the surface. He had made the Earth battleship take position so as to block any Pax attempt of making it to the earth. Unfortunately, the Pax ship was pushing them further into Earth's orbit. Zechs didn't want to destroy the Earth by falling into it.
So this was it. In the end, even an organization that spouted peace turned out to be hungry for war.
****
Relena felt as if somebody had tied Gundanium weights to her eyelids. She was awake, but was having trouble DOING anything. She couldn't tell where she was, but she heard a faint rustling sound.
The last thing she remembered was...what? Quatre being assigned as her bodyguard. No, there was something else, too. Something had happened.
Where was she?
Relena tried to move her fingers, but she wasn't sure if she were succeeding or not.
Quatre was her bodyguard because something had been happening with the colonies. With L2. Kav visited her, and...
He shot her? She remembered. He had been working for them the entire time.
That left her with the same question: Where was she now?
Relena slowly opened her eyes, squinting in the soft light above her. She made a small noise and heard somebody walking toward her.
"How are you feeling?" She heard somebody ask.
Relena gracelessly turned her head to the side to see Lady Une standing next to her bed. "Where am I?" Relena asked in a voice barely above a whisper. She noticed that Lady Une had a bandage on her head. How long had she been out?
"A small, unnoticed hotel just outside the capital. They tried to capture me during the takeover, but I managed to escape. I was able to get you out, as well."
"Takeover?"
Lady Une sighed, "It's a long story. The short of it is, we need you more than ever now, Relena Peacecraft."