I had become the prize possession of Mariemaia's army. Of course, she
thought she had possession of me, but I would never let myself be sucked
into her pathetic schemes. Mariemaia was doomed to fail. I would make sure
of that. No matter what that cost, or the penalties. My only question was
would Mariemaia be willing to make the same sacrifices to keep me under her
belt?
" I hate you." Relena muttered to me after I returned from my training a week after my battle. " You didn't have to do that to him!"
" You are the one who told me to defeat him in a humiliating manner. It is your fault that I broke Wufei like I said I would. He is still here, but almost like his soul has been stripped from him." I grinned as Relena stuttered and turned away. Shrugging, I flopped down onto a chair.
" You are the most.irritating person on the face of this colony! Not even Mariemaia aggravates me this much!"
" Get over yourself and suck it up."
" Hmpf! For your information, I used to be the ruler of the world!"
" So what? I used to be a student in high school, but things aren't always what they appear to be!" rubbing my eyes, I sighed very deeply. " I wasn't cut out to be a student, and you were never meant to be queen."
" How dare you! You're playing that stupid game on me! It won't work! I know about you pretending to be a normal girl.you.you.savage!"
" Hehehe.. So you think."
" You're not human. No human could ever be this complicated." Relena looked away, as if she regretted that statement. " At least, I didn't think so for a long time. Don't look at me like that!" She backed away, frightened by my stare.
" I know someone's been hurting you. You can not hide that. Even if I had never read your mind I would know that." I stretched out. " There is one thing you should know."
" What? That you're going to commit suicide and I'll finally be rid of you?"
" Nothing like that, but I am taking the Gundam Ace out for a test run tonight. Since it is the first time I will have ever piloted it in space, I was thinking that something might go wrong." Leaning forward, I shook my head. " That would be a shame. The Gundam Ace vanishing before Mariemaia's eyes. And you disappearing without a trace at the same time."
" So, our deal is going to finally come to pass. I don't understand why she didn't put you in the cockpit before! Mariemaia has no sense! Sending you into space with no training!"
" I have been training with the Gundam Ace since the first day. You do not know about it because Mariemaia forbid anyone to talk about it. She thinks I have the skills to handle it in deep space." Relena didn't trust me; her unfaithful heart shimmered through her entire body.
" I thought you would tell me."
" You thought wrong. I was under orders not to tell anyone, but you have to know so we can plan the escape. Mariemaia has started to freak me out. I want to leave here."
Relena's eyes scanned me. Her thoughts were raging, but I was keeping my word by not reading her mind. The pure energy of her anger towards me was unconceivable. Why did she hate me so much? What were her thoughts? I almost didn't want to know. Standing, I placed my hand on Relena's shoulder.
" Tonight is the night we finally break out of this demented colony."
" Are you sure you're ready for this, Ace? You've shown remarkable progress, but the Gundam Ace was made for space. You've never been into space before. We don't know how you'll do."
" No sweat, Mari. It's not like it's going to kill me." I shrugged. " I've been training for a while now.."
" Mari? You are being rude.again! Now listen, you're going out for only fifteen minutes in which we are going to check the weapons system. After three minutes we're going to send droids after you. Hopefully you'll live through the ordeal." Mariemaia looked stressed out.
" Cool, droids!"
" If you die, I am not responsible."
" Thanks for your support."
" I don't know if you can survive the harsh limits of outer space, Ace. You could die as soon as the gundam is outside the colony. There are no guarantees. I suggest you train for at least another month before attempting this." Wufei was usually a man of few words, but now he was trying everything to make Mariemaia change her mind about me.
" Shut the hell up. I can do this, and you will not stop me!" swirling around, I walked into my gundam's storage wing. Wufei stared after me, shocked by my language. Grinning, I strolled into the cockpit of my gundam. Pulling the microphone headset over my ponytail, I blew into it. " Hey, anybody care I'm in my gundam?"
" Good! Let's go through the checklist." Mariemaia's voice came over the headphones and she started to drone. I tuned out, leaned back, and put my mind at rest. " Blah, blah, blah, blah." It made no difference to me, for I knew how to operate the Gundam Ace better than anybody realized.
" You ready?" growled Wufei.
" Whatever. Can we bring in the droids! This'll be fun!" I sat up suddenly, and, taking up the controls, turned on my weapon of mass destruction. " Let's do it!"
" Stop being so cocky! You're going to get yourself killed and the Gundam injured. And not in that order!" Wufei was getting a little hot under the collar. Did I do that? " Ace, think for a moment and get your head out of the twenty-first century! This is war."
" And I'm an innocent, naïve girl thrown into it. What's your point? You always babble on, Wufei, without thinking about what you're saying."
" DAMN." someone must have covered up Wufei's microphone, because I didn't hear a word he said after that.
" Hmm.I guess they don't teach people manners in this era." I laughed out loud, gently tipping my head back. " Wufei, you may be jealous, but that is no good reason to be angry at me! How about you go cool off?"
" Ace, can we get this over with?" Mariemaia sighed. " Will someone do the countdown?"
" Hey! Countdowns rock! Let's do this, I'm ready."
" Ten, nine," someone began.
" Hey, do I have a sword? Why have you been training me with it, if I don't have it? Why haven't I thought of this before?"
" Five."
" Don't worry about it!" Mariemaia called over the countdown.
" Two, one!" Gundam Ace's rocket boosters were put into action, and I lifted into the air. This was totally awesome.
" Yeeee haaa!" I bellowed, and jammed on the execrators. Mariemaia had warned me not to do this, but I did it anyway. Her thoughts were very, very angry, and Wufei wanted to kill me. This was a normal day. " I'm on top of the pronoun!"
" What's a pronoun?" some muttered in the background.
" It's a part of speech." I answered. " Never mind." Outside Mariemaia's headquarters was nothingness. Plain and simple darkness that reached out into the cosmos. It was only interrupted by the occasional blot of a star. To anyone standing on one of those stars, I was a blot. A senseless nothingness in the cosmos. Knowing this heavy burden, I didn't know exactly why I was doing this. I could read minds, and know a person's thoughts, but I could never find a person who thought I was a blot. No one tossed me aside, like a trampled dream. Everyone had always said I was special because I could read a mind, not because of who I am. Were we all just blots in the universe? Or did I have a purpose to serve in this world? Was this gundam a key to my becoming more than a blot? Gundam Ace was completely capable of destroying the entire earth. I didn't want to do that. My soul wouldn't let me. Luckily, I was escaping from Mariemaia and her insanity in one, little test run.
" Ok, three minutes to droids." Mariemaia announced. " Get the hang of space while you can."
" Space is too vast for men to conqueror. Why are you trying?" I asked softly.
" What was that?"
" When are you sending the droids out?"
" Two minutes, thirty-five seconds." Mariemaia was so unsuspecting. In less than two minutes she would be terrified out of her wits, with any luck. " Are you ready?"
" You ask too many questions." I mumbled, speaking more about myself than of Mariemaia. " Life is full of things you are not prepared for. The only thing you can do is jump into them, and pray that you'll survive."
" I don't pray."
" That's a shame. Maybe praying would have saved you from yourself." With that, I disconnected the headset, and turned off all communication to Mariemaia's base. I sent the recorded message I had made last night. Basically it was my voice saying random words of a sentence while being overrun by static, then everything went out. Mariemaia had no sight of me because I had set her electricity to go out at this exact time. I took off. The Gundam flew past the blacked-out colony. Their life-support systems still worked, but they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening in space.
" Are you done showing off?" Relena snapped as she climbed out of a large storage space I had discovered a few weeks ago.
" Don't we all show off, and don't we all just want people to notice us so that we can fill the void within ourselves? It's just an endless circle." I put the gundam on autopilot and turned around to face Relena. She looked confused, again.
" You mean life's an endless waltz?"
" No, that's Mariemaia's bit, not mine. There's a lot more to life than war, peace, and revolution. Ask any child." I turned back around and gazed out the gundam's windows. " Space is cold."
" Yes."
We spent the rest of the flight in silence. I could feel that Relena didn't want to speak to me. She was afraid of my answer; I had changed on her once more. I was no longer the cocky, idiot who could read minds. I didn't want to know what evils lie in the hearts of mankind.
We reached earth's first line of defenses, a sensor that alerted mobile troops to your position. Relena told me to stop, and make no sign of firing. Around me formed a guard of mobile suits with pilots inside of them.
" What are you, and what's your business on earth?" A captain demanded, and his face appeared on my viewing screen.
" I am Ace Kai. I have come to earth with Relena.uh, her, to escape Mariemaia Khushrenada. You can put down your arms, I'm not going to fire."
" Hey, she's telling the truth. I'm here." Relena stuck her head into the screen, so the captain could see her. " We have to get to the base with the rest of the gundams! This is really important!"
" Oh, it is you!" the captain saluted, and ordered a guard to 'help' us to the base. I saw for the first time how I must look in their eyes. I was a teenage girl in a white, red, and yellow tight spacesuit. It was for good reason they suspected me. They thought I was the enemy, and I didn't know exactly if I was an ally or not, but they thought I was part of that freakish girl's plans.
" Relena, they would never let me into earth without you."
" Yeah, so?"
" I guess I owe you a great debt."
"..."
" I hate you." Relena muttered to me after I returned from my training a week after my battle. " You didn't have to do that to him!"
" You are the one who told me to defeat him in a humiliating manner. It is your fault that I broke Wufei like I said I would. He is still here, but almost like his soul has been stripped from him." I grinned as Relena stuttered and turned away. Shrugging, I flopped down onto a chair.
" You are the most.irritating person on the face of this colony! Not even Mariemaia aggravates me this much!"
" Get over yourself and suck it up."
" Hmpf! For your information, I used to be the ruler of the world!"
" So what? I used to be a student in high school, but things aren't always what they appear to be!" rubbing my eyes, I sighed very deeply. " I wasn't cut out to be a student, and you were never meant to be queen."
" How dare you! You're playing that stupid game on me! It won't work! I know about you pretending to be a normal girl.you.you.savage!"
" Hehehe.. So you think."
" You're not human. No human could ever be this complicated." Relena looked away, as if she regretted that statement. " At least, I didn't think so for a long time. Don't look at me like that!" She backed away, frightened by my stare.
" I know someone's been hurting you. You can not hide that. Even if I had never read your mind I would know that." I stretched out. " There is one thing you should know."
" What? That you're going to commit suicide and I'll finally be rid of you?"
" Nothing like that, but I am taking the Gundam Ace out for a test run tonight. Since it is the first time I will have ever piloted it in space, I was thinking that something might go wrong." Leaning forward, I shook my head. " That would be a shame. The Gundam Ace vanishing before Mariemaia's eyes. And you disappearing without a trace at the same time."
" So, our deal is going to finally come to pass. I don't understand why she didn't put you in the cockpit before! Mariemaia has no sense! Sending you into space with no training!"
" I have been training with the Gundam Ace since the first day. You do not know about it because Mariemaia forbid anyone to talk about it. She thinks I have the skills to handle it in deep space." Relena didn't trust me; her unfaithful heart shimmered through her entire body.
" I thought you would tell me."
" You thought wrong. I was under orders not to tell anyone, but you have to know so we can plan the escape. Mariemaia has started to freak me out. I want to leave here."
Relena's eyes scanned me. Her thoughts were raging, but I was keeping my word by not reading her mind. The pure energy of her anger towards me was unconceivable. Why did she hate me so much? What were her thoughts? I almost didn't want to know. Standing, I placed my hand on Relena's shoulder.
" Tonight is the night we finally break out of this demented colony."
" Are you sure you're ready for this, Ace? You've shown remarkable progress, but the Gundam Ace was made for space. You've never been into space before. We don't know how you'll do."
" No sweat, Mari. It's not like it's going to kill me." I shrugged. " I've been training for a while now.."
" Mari? You are being rude.again! Now listen, you're going out for only fifteen minutes in which we are going to check the weapons system. After three minutes we're going to send droids after you. Hopefully you'll live through the ordeal." Mariemaia looked stressed out.
" Cool, droids!"
" If you die, I am not responsible."
" Thanks for your support."
" I don't know if you can survive the harsh limits of outer space, Ace. You could die as soon as the gundam is outside the colony. There are no guarantees. I suggest you train for at least another month before attempting this." Wufei was usually a man of few words, but now he was trying everything to make Mariemaia change her mind about me.
" Shut the hell up. I can do this, and you will not stop me!" swirling around, I walked into my gundam's storage wing. Wufei stared after me, shocked by my language. Grinning, I strolled into the cockpit of my gundam. Pulling the microphone headset over my ponytail, I blew into it. " Hey, anybody care I'm in my gundam?"
" Good! Let's go through the checklist." Mariemaia's voice came over the headphones and she started to drone. I tuned out, leaned back, and put my mind at rest. " Blah, blah, blah, blah." It made no difference to me, for I knew how to operate the Gundam Ace better than anybody realized.
" You ready?" growled Wufei.
" Whatever. Can we bring in the droids! This'll be fun!" I sat up suddenly, and, taking up the controls, turned on my weapon of mass destruction. " Let's do it!"
" Stop being so cocky! You're going to get yourself killed and the Gundam injured. And not in that order!" Wufei was getting a little hot under the collar. Did I do that? " Ace, think for a moment and get your head out of the twenty-first century! This is war."
" And I'm an innocent, naïve girl thrown into it. What's your point? You always babble on, Wufei, without thinking about what you're saying."
" DAMN." someone must have covered up Wufei's microphone, because I didn't hear a word he said after that.
" Hmm.I guess they don't teach people manners in this era." I laughed out loud, gently tipping my head back. " Wufei, you may be jealous, but that is no good reason to be angry at me! How about you go cool off?"
" Ace, can we get this over with?" Mariemaia sighed. " Will someone do the countdown?"
" Hey! Countdowns rock! Let's do this, I'm ready."
" Ten, nine," someone began.
" Hey, do I have a sword? Why have you been training me with it, if I don't have it? Why haven't I thought of this before?"
" Five."
" Don't worry about it!" Mariemaia called over the countdown.
" Two, one!" Gundam Ace's rocket boosters were put into action, and I lifted into the air. This was totally awesome.
" Yeeee haaa!" I bellowed, and jammed on the execrators. Mariemaia had warned me not to do this, but I did it anyway. Her thoughts were very, very angry, and Wufei wanted to kill me. This was a normal day. " I'm on top of the pronoun!"
" What's a pronoun?" some muttered in the background.
" It's a part of speech." I answered. " Never mind." Outside Mariemaia's headquarters was nothingness. Plain and simple darkness that reached out into the cosmos. It was only interrupted by the occasional blot of a star. To anyone standing on one of those stars, I was a blot. A senseless nothingness in the cosmos. Knowing this heavy burden, I didn't know exactly why I was doing this. I could read minds, and know a person's thoughts, but I could never find a person who thought I was a blot. No one tossed me aside, like a trampled dream. Everyone had always said I was special because I could read a mind, not because of who I am. Were we all just blots in the universe? Or did I have a purpose to serve in this world? Was this gundam a key to my becoming more than a blot? Gundam Ace was completely capable of destroying the entire earth. I didn't want to do that. My soul wouldn't let me. Luckily, I was escaping from Mariemaia and her insanity in one, little test run.
" Ok, three minutes to droids." Mariemaia announced. " Get the hang of space while you can."
" Space is too vast for men to conqueror. Why are you trying?" I asked softly.
" What was that?"
" When are you sending the droids out?"
" Two minutes, thirty-five seconds." Mariemaia was so unsuspecting. In less than two minutes she would be terrified out of her wits, with any luck. " Are you ready?"
" You ask too many questions." I mumbled, speaking more about myself than of Mariemaia. " Life is full of things you are not prepared for. The only thing you can do is jump into them, and pray that you'll survive."
" I don't pray."
" That's a shame. Maybe praying would have saved you from yourself." With that, I disconnected the headset, and turned off all communication to Mariemaia's base. I sent the recorded message I had made last night. Basically it was my voice saying random words of a sentence while being overrun by static, then everything went out. Mariemaia had no sight of me because I had set her electricity to go out at this exact time. I took off. The Gundam flew past the blacked-out colony. Their life-support systems still worked, but they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening in space.
" Are you done showing off?" Relena snapped as she climbed out of a large storage space I had discovered a few weeks ago.
" Don't we all show off, and don't we all just want people to notice us so that we can fill the void within ourselves? It's just an endless circle." I put the gundam on autopilot and turned around to face Relena. She looked confused, again.
" You mean life's an endless waltz?"
" No, that's Mariemaia's bit, not mine. There's a lot more to life than war, peace, and revolution. Ask any child." I turned back around and gazed out the gundam's windows. " Space is cold."
" Yes."
We spent the rest of the flight in silence. I could feel that Relena didn't want to speak to me. She was afraid of my answer; I had changed on her once more. I was no longer the cocky, idiot who could read minds. I didn't want to know what evils lie in the hearts of mankind.
We reached earth's first line of defenses, a sensor that alerted mobile troops to your position. Relena told me to stop, and make no sign of firing. Around me formed a guard of mobile suits with pilots inside of them.
" What are you, and what's your business on earth?" A captain demanded, and his face appeared on my viewing screen.
" I am Ace Kai. I have come to earth with Relena.uh, her, to escape Mariemaia Khushrenada. You can put down your arms, I'm not going to fire."
" Hey, she's telling the truth. I'm here." Relena stuck her head into the screen, so the captain could see her. " We have to get to the base with the rest of the gundams! This is really important!"
" Oh, it is you!" the captain saluted, and ordered a guard to 'help' us to the base. I saw for the first time how I must look in their eyes. I was a teenage girl in a white, red, and yellow tight spacesuit. It was for good reason they suspected me. They thought I was the enemy, and I didn't know exactly if I was an ally or not, but they thought I was part of that freakish girl's plans.
" Relena, they would never let me into earth without you."
" Yeah, so?"
" I guess I owe you a great debt."
"..."