Arctic Blaze
By Dolfinz
CHAPTER 2
Andraya leveled the gun even with the Gundam pilot's chest, ready to fire at the teenager that had destroyed her base. To her surprise, the pilot just smiled and held out his hand.
"Give me the gun, Andraya. I never intended to harm you anyhow," he said.
Andraya held fast to the gun. "How the hell did you know my name?" she demanded.
"What, you think I let you win that battle on purpose? You really thought you had defeated a Gundam?!" the male pilot began to laugh a little.
Click-click. Andraya removed the safety on the gun.
"Andraya, you remember the Maxwell Church Tragedy, yes?" the Gundam pilot said, not flinching in the slightest, yet ceasing his laughter.
Upon hearing those words, Andraya lowered the gun slowly, until it was dangling at her side. She had not heard of the Tragedy in almost 7 years, and hearing it now brought back the painful memories attached to it.
Suddenly, Andraya was transported back to the time when she had been naïve enough to imagine that having a home ensured her safety. She was laughing with her friends in the L2 colony cluster, walking home from school under the artificial sunlight and cloud-scattered sky. She could still see the mobile suits attack her only home, still feel the sudden violence of the shaking, still be repelled by the heat of the fires, still cry the tears that she had cried when she saw her home leveled to the ground. She could still remember the soldiers almost trampling her, ransacking her home and those of her friends and neighbors. She could still smell the burning flesh and hear the cries of distress as others found their families gone forever.
She somehow had walked through it all, witnessing countless scenes of tragedy and pain, both physical and emotional. She had eventually found herself at the remains of a church, which she later came to identify as the basis for the name of the Maxwell Tragedy. In only a few moments of standing there watching a small boy blame himself for the death of his loved ones, Andraya had learned the lesson that would forever shape her lifestyle. She had learned the one thing that had made her a good soldier, the one thing that had kept her alive after all these years of fighting.
That day, Andraya learned that getting close to people meant getting hurt, and the hurt that was felt was one that could never be healed. In less than 5 minutes, she had lost her friends, family, home, and community, all to war, just like countless other innocent people. She had continued to walk on until she found a friend of her deceased mother, who suggested her becoming a soldier to try and prevent further incidents like the one she was witnessing. From that day on, Andraya had been an OZ Soldier. They told her that OZ had tried to prevent the attack on her home colony, and, had they had complete supremacy, her family would never have perished. She believed them.
"Andraya?" the Gundam pilot said, bringing Andraya back to the present.
"How…why do you mention it?" she asked.
"Why don't you come with me," the male pilot suggested, a look of slight sympathy and pain coming across his face.
Reluctantly, Andraya placed the gun in the Gundam pilot's outstretched hand, and climbed up into her Aries cockpit. The memories brought back to her had sobered her, and brought the painful realization that she had lost yet another of her homes. She had no where else to go now.
"By the way!" the male pilot called, standing outside the cockpit of his Gundam. "My name's Duo. Duo Maxwell."
"Andraya Saino," she called back, a bit surprised at the last name of the teenager.
"I knew that," Duo said, climbing into the cockpit of his Gundam.
With a reluctant sigh, Andraya followed Duo out of the forest and over the Pacific Ocean for a ways. There was nothing else she could do. Her living arrangements had a habit of being destroyed by the enemy, and she had nowhere else to go now. And besides, Andraya had a feeling that this Duo Maxwell was the little boy she remembered from the Tragedy back in L2. She didn't know why he had asked her to go with him, but she was sure going to find out.
"Worst comes to worst, I can always kill him," Andraya said under her breath.
"What's that?" Duo replied. The intercom had been left on in Andraya's Aries.
"Nothing," she replied, shutting off the intercom with a smirk. "Just planning your demise."