A/N: thought it was time fer an author's note….hahaha…so this story seems to be going over well!! Yay! Well I just wanted to mention that the reason the chapters come every day is cuz I have a bunch of chapters already written…so if theres a small gap and chapters come once every week or possibly a little shorter u'll know that's when the stock ran out! ;) so keep reading and reviewing….i really appreciate the reviews!! Also any suggestions or anything else u have to say is helpful and appreciated. That's it now! I promise! Read the chapter J

Arctic Blaze

By Dolfinz

CHAPTER 4

"So! This is your room, hope you're comfortable!" Duo said cheerily as he unlocked a room in the corridor leading to the hangar. He threw the key he had just used on the bed.

Andraya silently surveyed the room, finding it suitable. It was a small rectangular shaped room, with a bed against one wall and a desk opposite it. In the wall opposite the door was a small window, just large enough to see a small piece of the horizon through.

"So…" Duo said, realizing that Andraya was not going to speak. "Why don't I introduce you to the regs around here so you can get some rest. You are tired, aren't you?" he asked, cocking his head at the female pilot.

Andraya nodded, and once again followed Duo to the hangar. As soon as they entered the massive room, they were greeted by an older man who seemed to be in charge of everything.

"Hey, Duo! Who's your friend here?" he asked, smiling at Andraya.

"This is the new Gundam pilot, Andraya Saino. Andraya, this is Howard, the brains behind this excuse for an operation," Duo said cheerily.

"Nice to meet ya!" Howard said. "I'd love to stay and chat, however I have to set these dimwit excuses for repairmen back in line!" He began yelling down to some men chatting at a console, and Duo led Andraya on.

They walked down the catwalk a ways, then stopped at the Gundam Andraya knew was piloted by 05.

"Hey Wu-Man!" Duo called up to the Gundam looming over them. A second later, a Chinese boy exited the cockpit and glared down at the two teenagers who had disturbed him from his repairs. He easily leaped down to the catwalk, awaiting introductions.

"Who's this?" he asked, glaring at Andraya.

"This is Andraya Saino, the 6th Gundam pilot the sci-guys were tellin' us about," Duo said. "Andraya, this is Wufei Chang, but he likes to be called Wu-Man," he finished with a mischievous glint in his cobalt eyes.

"A woman," Wufei contemplated, taking no note of Duo introducing him by his hated nickname. "They chose a woman?"

"Charming crowd," Andraya said to Duo, who just laughed and playfully punched Wufei on the arm before leading Andraya down the catwalk.

"Watch it, Maxwell!" Wufei called after them, then went back to repairing his beloved Gundam.

"He's a pain, but you'll get used to him," Duo told Andraya before stopping at the next Gundam in line. "Yo, Heero! You up there, buddy?"

"What do you want, Duo," a frustrated voice said from the cockpit of the Gundam.

"I got the new Gundam pilot here! Wouldn't ya like to meet her?" Duo called up to the other pilot.

"Her?" Heero mumbled before appearing before Duo and Andraya.

"Her name's Andraya Saino. Andraya, this is Heero Yuy."

"Pleasure," Heero briefly nodded at his potential colleague, then went back to his repairs.

"Aw, they're really not that bad!" Duo assured Andraya, who had come to the logical conclusion that most of the people hanging around were overall antisocial. "If Quatre had been here…" Duo started to laugh a little.

"So where's that suit from the projection?" Andraya asked the male pilot.

"Aha! Curious! So you're gonna say yes, right?" Duo said, a grin forming on his face.

"How can I say yes to piloting a suit I've never even seen?" Andraya said, coldness forming in her voice.

"Look, lady, we didn't have to pick you, I didn't have to go get you out of that base, though you did make that part slightly easier than I thought it would be…" Duo mused. "But seriously though. Try to consider this, OK? We could really use your help around here."

Andraya was startled by the first serious words to leave her companion's mouth since she had met him. Do they really need me that badly? she contemplated, before following Duo to the other side of the hangar. It was an odd thing to consider, switching sides in the middle of a war. No matter how much Duo bugged her, however, it simply was not a decision she could make so quickly.

"Here we are!" Duo said, his regular cheerfulness returning to his voice. "Arcticblaze, at your service!"

Andraya gasped slightly as she looked up at the massive suit. It was just so big! All of the suits she had piloted previously were miniscule compared to this Gundam before her. As she stared in awe at the height of the Gundam however, Duo jumped inside and made the suit come to life.

"You wanna see what this thing can do?" he asked over the speaker. When Andraya nodded, he flew the suit out of the hangar and over the ocean.

Andraya ran up a flight of stairs to the top of the hangar, so that she was standing on the roof. Duo spotted her, then began his demonstration. Grasping a long rifle off the back of the suit, Duo brought it down level with a piece of scrap metal floating in the water. After a few seconds of whirring and buzzing, the cannon fired, and, to Andraya's surprise, the piece of metal, along with a considerable amount of the water around it, froze for a split second, then shattered into a million pieces. Some of the pieces found their way to the roof of the hangar, and Andraya picked one up.

"Ouch!" she yelped, throwing down the scrap quickly. The scrap had been so cold it was almost…hot, a truly painful sensation.

"Weird, isn't it?" Duo called over the speaker, and Andraya nodded. "You sure got a unique weapon here, miss! No one would ever expect a freezing effect to come from a buster rifle shell!" Then he replaced the rifle and started to show off a series of other tricks that the suit could do.

Andraya watched in awe as she saw the capabilities of a suit she could one day pilot. Had this suit been presented to her at the OZ base, she would have jumped at the chance to pilot it. No, the only thing holding her back here was that with the piloting of this suit came new loyalty, a loyalty she wasn't sure she was ready to proclaim. Sure, OZ had been harsh to her, never allowing her the possibility to climb in rank, but had they been lying to her all along? Just to keep her loyalty on their side?

Andraya was startled from her thoughts by a splashing sound in the distance. At first, she thought Duo had lost control of the suit and dived underwater while she had been distracted by her thoughts. However, in a few moments, Arcticblaze burst through the surface and went to hover so that its head was directly in front of Andraya.

"Did I mention it goes underwater, and that all the weapons still function when submerged?" Duo boasted. "Don't think any of those OZ suits you fly around can do that…" he teased, snapping the huge Gundanium suit into a salute.

Andraya found herself laughing at the silly mannerisms of the Gundam pilot. It was the first time she had done so in a long time, maybe years. It hit her then that maybe OZ had deprived her of more than just rank, had deprived her of certain truths which affected where she placed her loyalty. It was something else to consider, something else to influence her decision.

Duo flew the new Gundam back into the hangar, and Andraya headed back down the staircase to meet him. Still unsure of what she would decide, she gratefully agreed to Duo's suggestion to retire for the day, and headed back to her new room to try and get some sleep.