Chapter 8 is halfway done already. I want to try to finish this within the next few months, before this semester ends. Look for it to be about 20 chapters. Oh, thank you for the review! It's kind of nice to know people were wanting more. ^^
====================================================================
I never liked getting emotional. It always made me feel weak and useless. It always left me feeling so tired. Perhaps it was my grandfathers influcence that made me believe that in order to be strong I had to be steel. I couldn't show my emotions to anyone if I had them. But why... why couldn't it have been a beautiful battle? Why couldn't I have hidden in joy?
*******
A.C 198
Once they were inside her room, Dorothy immediately started to pull off the flight suit she'd been wearing since they left the Colony hospital. Duo didn't stare at her, but he did watch. Even under the vest she was decently dressed, though if she weren't, she probably wouldn't have minded. She wasn't ashamed of her body. Though, honestly, she didn't really want him to gawk at her. She pulled off the vest, rubbing lightly at the place of impact... and flinched. Damn it. She'd bruised a rib. That would slow her down if anyone else found out. She pulled her flight suit back on and sat down carefully. "Maxwell, keep this to yourself. I don't have the time to spend recovering."
"Dorothy," he started, actually saying her name for a change. And sounding a little pitied.
"I don't need any concern, I'll be fine," she cut him off, not interested in what the young man might have to say. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable."
"Your people are blind idiots, you know that?" he said as he plopped down in a nearby chair. "I don't know how they missed the weapon, but those morons didn't even notice that you got hit!"
"They're not fighters. A majority of those on the base are techs. Most have no combat training or experience." Dorothy explained. The look on his face was almost amusing. He probably didn't believe her. Not that it mattered if he believed her. What mattered was that, if even for a short time, he was willing to help her.
Duo sat forward and turned an intense look on her. It surprised her a little, since even when he was threatening to destory the storage bay with his Gundam, he had managed to remain almost friendly. Right then, he wasn't friendly. In fact, since he had a weapon on him, she might have had reason to be worried, especially with the vest now off. "Are you going to explain what's going on now?"
"I'm keeping a weapon stock for future disruptions that may require them."
"If you wanted that, why didn't you just join the Perventers?"
The answer came reluctantly, but it did come. "Because the Preventers won't build new weapon types. I spoke to Lady Une about it. It's one of their primary objectives."
"Why do you want new weapons? The old ones work just as well."
"The old ones are also on record. Someone skilled in information gathering could find the designs and locate weaknesses. Such information is more valuable in combat that superior weapons."
Duo nodded. It seemed he understood that much at least. "So this Algol-thing, that the only new project you got?"
"No. There's three others. Antares, Deneb, and Sirius."
"Interesting names. Those are all stars, right?"
"You know star names?"
"Just a few. Any of them mobile suits?"
"Sirius. Deneb is like Algol, a side weapon. Antares is a space ship. All of them have a special purpose. Algol is based off a prototype side-weapon for a mobile suit that the Gundam Scientists tested. It was too defective to be used originally. The designs for it were lost on Libra so I had to go from memory."
"You must have a good memory."
A good memory? In objects of war and battle tactics, yes. In other things... the only memory she had of her mother was the song she used to play on the piano. True, she had only been three when her mother died, but if it weren't for pictures she wouldn't even know what the woman had looked like. Or where her blond hair, blue eyes and forked eyebrows had come from. The memories weren't important in the end, so Dorothy tried to let the thoughts go. Hopefully Duo hadn't noticed anything from her expression. "Anything else?"
"Why did you build the Gundams? They aren't new weapons... and why did you make it respond only to my DNA?"
"Ah." He would ask that question. It was the most logical direction for the conversation to go. She had her reasons... but... for now... "The Gundam is by far the best known symbol for peace. And there's no one in existence right now worthy of piloting them outside you boys and Millardo-sama."
That earned a laugh, "And you, I guess?" Duo said, still snickering.
"This isn't about me." She wasn't worthy. Not yet. She was getting there though. No need to tell Maxwell that.
"What about your former underlings who seemed to think you deserve to die?"
If it wasn't for the fact that this question dropped the question of the Gundams, Dorothy would have been somewhat distraught. This was a question she didn't really want to answer. But she wanted to talk on the Gundams even less. "They call themselves the Helios Order They most of my original recruits." She had known adding them was a risk, but it was that she had to take back then. "I needed people who were experienced. Who knew warfare and the technology they would be working with. Therefore, I chose my recruits from former Alliance soldiers, former OZ soldiers and even those that had been in White Fang and the Barton Foundation. I told them I needed weapons built and they assumed I was following in my Grandfather's and Treize-sama's daughter's footsteps. When they found out differently, they broke off, stealing a majority of the Centari shuttles. We were able to keep them from the special projects, but they seem to know where we store them again. We'll have to move them before the next attack."
"You moved them before?"
"Three times. Though I figured we had them fooled this time. I moved them back to their original base."
"Sneaky!"
"I'm a sneaky woman."
"I noticed," the braid boy snickered under his breath, and then went serious again, "So most of your remaining people are ones who actually designed and built them?"
"Yes. Almost all the fighters defected."
"And they're the ones who attacked us." Not really a question, more of a conclusion.
"It was a Centari class shuttle that attacked us. I imagine they found out where I was headed. Though since it was your shuttle they attacked... And they did leave us drifting... It could be they were just trying to keep me from the special projects while they commenced their attack. They know that the projects are never deployed without my direct order."
"Hmm..."
Whatever words of unlikely wisdom he had been about to utter ceased before they left his tongue. The door to Dorothy's room slid open, revealing Relena and a guide. The guide, a young girl with short brown hair was Michiko Tanaka. It might have seemed odd that she knew the name of almost all of her people, but she did. Treize-sama had been the same. So had her father.
"What is it, Relena-sama?" Dorothy asked, in an annoyed fashion. Hopefully the people on the base had told her enough so that she wouldn't get a lecture.
There was something off though. Relena's expression was extremely calm and controlled, but also stunned and solemn. And she wasn't lecturing. She wasn't even speaking.
"Relena-sama?"
The dark blonde girl turned towards her guide and told the girl to leave. Michiko's eyes went to Dorothy, waiting until a nod was given before departing.
"What is it?" Duo asked, sitting up.
Relena went to settle down into a chair, focusing her eyes on the blue-eyed pilot. "Trowa contacted me using the companel that was left in the shuttle."
Dorothy's eyes narrowed. Why had her people let Relena speak to him and not contact her first? The question was never uttered.
"Quatre died in surgery."
Silence filled the room. Relena wasn't even looking at her, so no one saw what Dorothy's reaction might have been. Duo's hands clenched into a fist. Once Dorothy was sure that her voice would be steady, she asked, "Has it been announced yet?"
They both looked at her like she'd just said the worst possible thing she could have said, but Relena did answer, "Yes. It's been in the hands of the Colony media for about an hour."
Carefully pushing herself up from the chair, Dorothy added calmly, "We need to move forward with the project. Any help either of you are going to give will be welcome."
"That's all you're going to say??" Duo said in a dumbfounded and angry voice, "Even Heero would react more than that!"
"What do you want me to do!?" Dorothy turned on the braided youth. "Cry!? Throw things!? Tears won't bring him back! And them -- the people under my leadership -- are in jepordy. You may not care what happens to them, but I do!"
She didn't even notice the changes in their expressions.
"He's dead! There's nothing I can do to change that! Getting emotional is use--" her voice stopped mid-yell. There was a salty sting on her lips. Her tongue flicked out to taste it and at first she didn't realize what it was. It'd been so long since the last time she cried. Since Libra, in fact.
Dorothy didn't say another word. She turned around and exited through the sliding door. She thought she heard someone say her name, but the door cut it off.
====================================================================
This wasn't what I intended to happen originally, I don't think, but it fits with the direction I want to go. ~_~
====================================================================
I never liked getting emotional. It always made me feel weak and useless. It always left me feeling so tired. Perhaps it was my grandfathers influcence that made me believe that in order to be strong I had to be steel. I couldn't show my emotions to anyone if I had them. But why... why couldn't it have been a beautiful battle? Why couldn't I have hidden in joy?
*******
A.C 198
Once they were inside her room, Dorothy immediately started to pull off the flight suit she'd been wearing since they left the Colony hospital. Duo didn't stare at her, but he did watch. Even under the vest she was decently dressed, though if she weren't, she probably wouldn't have minded. She wasn't ashamed of her body. Though, honestly, she didn't really want him to gawk at her. She pulled off the vest, rubbing lightly at the place of impact... and flinched. Damn it. She'd bruised a rib. That would slow her down if anyone else found out. She pulled her flight suit back on and sat down carefully. "Maxwell, keep this to yourself. I don't have the time to spend recovering."
"Dorothy," he started, actually saying her name for a change. And sounding a little pitied.
"I don't need any concern, I'll be fine," she cut him off, not interested in what the young man might have to say. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable."
"Your people are blind idiots, you know that?" he said as he plopped down in a nearby chair. "I don't know how they missed the weapon, but those morons didn't even notice that you got hit!"
"They're not fighters. A majority of those on the base are techs. Most have no combat training or experience." Dorothy explained. The look on his face was almost amusing. He probably didn't believe her. Not that it mattered if he believed her. What mattered was that, if even for a short time, he was willing to help her.
Duo sat forward and turned an intense look on her. It surprised her a little, since even when he was threatening to destory the storage bay with his Gundam, he had managed to remain almost friendly. Right then, he wasn't friendly. In fact, since he had a weapon on him, she might have had reason to be worried, especially with the vest now off. "Are you going to explain what's going on now?"
"I'm keeping a weapon stock for future disruptions that may require them."
"If you wanted that, why didn't you just join the Perventers?"
The answer came reluctantly, but it did come. "Because the Preventers won't build new weapon types. I spoke to Lady Une about it. It's one of their primary objectives."
"Why do you want new weapons? The old ones work just as well."
"The old ones are also on record. Someone skilled in information gathering could find the designs and locate weaknesses. Such information is more valuable in combat that superior weapons."
Duo nodded. It seemed he understood that much at least. "So this Algol-thing, that the only new project you got?"
"No. There's three others. Antares, Deneb, and Sirius."
"Interesting names. Those are all stars, right?"
"You know star names?"
"Just a few. Any of them mobile suits?"
"Sirius. Deneb is like Algol, a side weapon. Antares is a space ship. All of them have a special purpose. Algol is based off a prototype side-weapon for a mobile suit that the Gundam Scientists tested. It was too defective to be used originally. The designs for it were lost on Libra so I had to go from memory."
"You must have a good memory."
A good memory? In objects of war and battle tactics, yes. In other things... the only memory she had of her mother was the song she used to play on the piano. True, she had only been three when her mother died, but if it weren't for pictures she wouldn't even know what the woman had looked like. Or where her blond hair, blue eyes and forked eyebrows had come from. The memories weren't important in the end, so Dorothy tried to let the thoughts go. Hopefully Duo hadn't noticed anything from her expression. "Anything else?"
"Why did you build the Gundams? They aren't new weapons... and why did you make it respond only to my DNA?"
"Ah." He would ask that question. It was the most logical direction for the conversation to go. She had her reasons... but... for now... "The Gundam is by far the best known symbol for peace. And there's no one in existence right now worthy of piloting them outside you boys and Millardo-sama."
That earned a laugh, "And you, I guess?" Duo said, still snickering.
"This isn't about me." She wasn't worthy. Not yet. She was getting there though. No need to tell Maxwell that.
"What about your former underlings who seemed to think you deserve to die?"
If it wasn't for the fact that this question dropped the question of the Gundams, Dorothy would have been somewhat distraught. This was a question she didn't really want to answer. But she wanted to talk on the Gundams even less. "They call themselves the Helios Order They most of my original recruits." She had known adding them was a risk, but it was that she had to take back then. "I needed people who were experienced. Who knew warfare and the technology they would be working with. Therefore, I chose my recruits from former Alliance soldiers, former OZ soldiers and even those that had been in White Fang and the Barton Foundation. I told them I needed weapons built and they assumed I was following in my Grandfather's and Treize-sama's daughter's footsteps. When they found out differently, they broke off, stealing a majority of the Centari shuttles. We were able to keep them from the special projects, but they seem to know where we store them again. We'll have to move them before the next attack."
"You moved them before?"
"Three times. Though I figured we had them fooled this time. I moved them back to their original base."
"Sneaky!"
"I'm a sneaky woman."
"I noticed," the braid boy snickered under his breath, and then went serious again, "So most of your remaining people are ones who actually designed and built them?"
"Yes. Almost all the fighters defected."
"And they're the ones who attacked us." Not really a question, more of a conclusion.
"It was a Centari class shuttle that attacked us. I imagine they found out where I was headed. Though since it was your shuttle they attacked... And they did leave us drifting... It could be they were just trying to keep me from the special projects while they commenced their attack. They know that the projects are never deployed without my direct order."
"Hmm..."
Whatever words of unlikely wisdom he had been about to utter ceased before they left his tongue. The door to Dorothy's room slid open, revealing Relena and a guide. The guide, a young girl with short brown hair was Michiko Tanaka. It might have seemed odd that she knew the name of almost all of her people, but she did. Treize-sama had been the same. So had her father.
"What is it, Relena-sama?" Dorothy asked, in an annoyed fashion. Hopefully the people on the base had told her enough so that she wouldn't get a lecture.
There was something off though. Relena's expression was extremely calm and controlled, but also stunned and solemn. And she wasn't lecturing. She wasn't even speaking.
"Relena-sama?"
The dark blonde girl turned towards her guide and told the girl to leave. Michiko's eyes went to Dorothy, waiting until a nod was given before departing.
"What is it?" Duo asked, sitting up.
Relena went to settle down into a chair, focusing her eyes on the blue-eyed pilot. "Trowa contacted me using the companel that was left in the shuttle."
Dorothy's eyes narrowed. Why had her people let Relena speak to him and not contact her first? The question was never uttered.
"Quatre died in surgery."
Silence filled the room. Relena wasn't even looking at her, so no one saw what Dorothy's reaction might have been. Duo's hands clenched into a fist. Once Dorothy was sure that her voice would be steady, she asked, "Has it been announced yet?"
They both looked at her like she'd just said the worst possible thing she could have said, but Relena did answer, "Yes. It's been in the hands of the Colony media for about an hour."
Carefully pushing herself up from the chair, Dorothy added calmly, "We need to move forward with the project. Any help either of you are going to give will be welcome."
"That's all you're going to say??" Duo said in a dumbfounded and angry voice, "Even Heero would react more than that!"
"What do you want me to do!?" Dorothy turned on the braided youth. "Cry!? Throw things!? Tears won't bring him back! And them -- the people under my leadership -- are in jepordy. You may not care what happens to them, but I do!"
She didn't even notice the changes in their expressions.
"He's dead! There's nothing I can do to change that! Getting emotional is use--" her voice stopped mid-yell. There was a salty sting on her lips. Her tongue flicked out to taste it and at first she didn't realize what it was. It'd been so long since the last time she cried. Since Libra, in fact.
Dorothy didn't say another word. She turned around and exited through the sliding door. She thought she heard someone say her name, but the door cut it off.
====================================================================
This wasn't what I intended to happen originally, I don't think, but it fits with the direction I want to go. ~_~
