Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the fanfic. They are © to their creators and anyone else who has rights to them. I do, however, own this fanfic.
***
Race Against Time
***
Darkness flooded around them as they entered the depths of space, darkness like midnight. The silence reminded Lady Une of death, and death also reminded Une of Treize. She thought about this, for the cockpit of Tallgeese IV had Treize's favorite scent. She watched her vid screens for any sign of life, the only thing visible being a few transport shuttles carrying visitors to and from the colonies.
Somehow signaling to the two boys that they were to proceed, Lady Une took one look back at their rendezvous point. It was a satellite orbiting Earth. They had calculated the precise position of where the satellite would be at the time of their return. She grunted and maneuvered the mecha forward, continuing on to her destination.
***
Heero proceeded to his destination, seeing the mecha carrier and it's convoy on his radar. He figured the escorts would be lowly taurus' or aries', something or another. As usual he was correct; the convoy's escorts were Taurus'. It was merely a split second and he was closer to them now, they had taken long enough to spot him. Suddenly a flood of Taurus' came his way.
Charging his beam cannon he blew away the first horde like a row of British men with muskets, but he could not take the second wave for they were too close. Extracting his beam saber he continuing to brutally massacre the swarm, disregarding Lady Une's words. He surged forth from within the hive of Taurus', little scathed and heading to cut off carriers.
He would not destroy them, merely disable them so they could not continue. Preventer's backup Taurus' were heading his way to seize the rest of the soldiers and crewmen. Throwing his thrusters into full power he sped off to Wufei's location. He would need help; somehow he always needs help.
***
Wufei's operation had gone almost as smoothly as Heero's. But somehow there were more soldiers, mechas, and carriers coming from L5. He was overwhelmed by the masses of Taurus' and Aries'. The first and second waves were as smooth as Heero's but by the third wave Altron was beginning to take serious damage.
The backup Taurus' were showing up here was well, but they were losing in number as the raging populace of L5's soldiers began to tear into them. A lowly beam cannon shot and suddenly there was a gap in front of Wufei. He recovered only to find his swift companion at his side, smirking and muttering into the comm something that sounded like 'Knew you'd need my help'.
With Heero's help, Wufei polished off the last of the threatening soldiers and they were seized. In one last brave attempt a Taurus' flew at the both of them and abruptly self-destructed as it came in contact. Shrapnel flew across and into both of the Gundams.
"Damn those righteous foolish people!" Wufei could be heard on the comm loud and clear and Heero smirked.
"…Don't get yourself worked up…" Heero was vague as usual but he had since began to construct full sentences more often.
***
Lady Une experienced the most trouble of them all, and received no aid from the two boys. She was in the middle of a raging battlefield, aiding neither side. She received fire from both sides who had inadvertently teamed up to disperse of the intruder. There was a savior though, the least likely of them all. The original revered Tallgeese swooped down to rescue the fuming Lady Une.
"Why did you come? You are not welcome on this mission, Milliardo!" Her voice was broken and low. She spoke in a swift manner that reminded Milliardo of someone making sure that some eavesdropper would not know of their conversation.
"You are obviously in trouble, Une. Please, don't be so obstinate." With that said Milliardo took off and began—with Une's help—to dispose of or seize the soldiers. Lady Une was reluctantly; she didn't want Milliardo here. She didn't want to thank Milliardo. In fact she didn't want to talk to him, for talking to him brought back that longing, that desire.
Milliardo's voice came back over the comm, "We will head back to the—I believe it is—rendezvous point. Heero and Wufei will be found there, will they not? Congratulations of a mission well executed, and almost flawless." His thrusters were the last things she saw before she realized he was gone. She followed slowly and reluctantly.
***
Heero and Wufei were there.. and they began the quick trek back to base. As they arrived each pilot disembarked. Heero and Wufei glancing to one another then to Une and Milliardo, swiftly left. There was a deep silence between the two, as they stared at each other. Milliardo's eyes contained an emotion that sort of gave way for the phrase I told you so, although he said nothing.
Lady Une's eyes were ablaze; she wanted to charge at him and give him a swift blow to the gut, but he would catch her hand. So she stood there, letting him feel her aura, her wrath. Suddenly he moved forward, toward her. As he neared, she felt the most irrational sense of femininity that she had ever experienced, and she reached up to slap him.
As predicted his fingers wrapped around her wrist and he pulled her into a long embrace. She struggled against it at first but them relaxed. There was yet again a prolonged silence, with the occasional ruffle of shoes. She tilted her head back and looked up to him, eyes filled with inquiry.
"You could've been hurt today, Une. And despite your feelings, I do care. Despite what you have witnessed." Milliardo's voice was low, as if Noin could be found everywhere. Lady Une shook her head in protest.
"I would've been just fine on my own Milliardo. No one asked for you assistance." She wrenched away from his hug and briskly walked to the exit of the hanger. He watched her go, the way her walk somehow contained her wistful, hidden feelings. He would have to choose, but how could he.
The girl of his dreams.. the girl who held his heart but then again didn't have it at all.
Or the girl that he had shown affection for since he had known, the girl he had time with.
A/N: Yeah it's been a while. And this story is nearing it's end.