Starlight Sisters
Chapter Eight: Gone into the Darkness of Space
Relena stared at her blankly for a second and then seem to regain her composure. She removed her hand from Jade's and took a step back to put some distance between her and the pilot. "Yes that is a good question. But not half as important as this one. Are you friend or foe? What do you plan on doing with these Gundam?" She demanded staring at Jade, her eyebrows drawing together. Kari clutched at Relena's leg and Relena dropped a hand to the girl's shoulders. Jade smiled and turned back to Starlight and her crew. "I am Heero' sister. I will fight beside my brother." Relena's eyes went wide for a moment then back to her normal gaze as she turned to Heero. Heero nodded confirming what Jade had just said. Jade was walking back to Starlight when Relena bent down and lifted Kari up. She held her up by her armpits inspecting her and then hugged her. "Kari I am so glad to see you are alive." Kari wrapped her arms around Relena and hugged her. "Yeah they've been taking care of me Relena. I was so sad about your disappearance but Jade said you would be alright." Relena smiled at her. "Did she really?" Relena set Kari down and walked over to where Jade was giving instructions to the pilots.
"Ok Lily good work. If you can survive those two you can survive anything the A's will throw at you. Steph, Woo good work with the analysis of their speed and statistical though I think that we could probably do a systematical check. They were too close before we registered their presences." Jade looked to her side where Relena had appeared holding Kari and had nodded. "Relena are their any mechanics on this ship?" Relena nodded and pointed to the door where a few men were entering looking tired and wore. Jade's eyes softened when they hit the weary workers. She turned back to her crew. "First we are going to answer any of the princess's questions and then we are coming back down here and helping these guys with our mobile suits." Everyone nodded and after giving the mechanics a few minor instructions they all headed to the deck of the ship where the ship's captain had taken over the command of the ship. Relena introduced them. "Everyone this is Captain Petrolli." The middle aged, slightly balding man with brown eyes gave them all a warm smile before turning back to his controls. His hair looked like it had once been black but was now beginning to show age with white strands beginning to peek through.
So there they stood. Relena stood straight and still her blonde hair up in a makeshift ponytail with a jean jacket thrown over her white shirt and black pants. She motioned toward the other seats indicating for the others to sit down. Woo sat up on a railing, while Lilly, Steph, and Jade all sat down on the chairs. Duo was carrying Kari on his back while Noin, Une and Poe stood either leaning against a wall or standing up. Heero leaned against a wall, Quatre sat down next to Relena, Trowa and Wufei sat on either side of Woo on the railing. Relena exhaled slightly seeming to gain control on herself and then focused her attention on Jade. "Would you mind if I asked all of your names?" Jade nodded and waved her hand to either side of her where her two fellow pilots had sat down. "This is Stephanie Kushranada and Lily Marquise. That is Wufei Woo, and I am Jade Yuy by code name." Relena's eyes lingered on Lily for a moment longer than need and Noin spoke up. "Zechs and I found Lily in an abandoned hotel when she was only a little girl. She remind him of you and he took her in and adopted her calling her his little sister so that people wouldn't question him because he didn't have any family." Lily's eyes were firmly planted on the floor and Relena smiled and nodded her head and looked to Stephanie. "Marimaya is your niece and Dorothy is your cousin I am guessing." Steph nodded her head and looked straight into the eyes of Relena. "I knew you were alive." Woo's voice came from the railing. "We all did." Said Jade. Relena smiled. Woo continued. "Kari happens to be a big fan of yours." Kari's head came up and she gave a tired smile to everyone in the room before plopping her head on Duo's shoulder. "How do you know her Relena?" Duo asked. "Kari was the princess of a pacifistic nation. Of course she took lessons at the academy. She was one of the most outspoken of all of her classmates. She and I became good friends." Kari's heavy breathing could be heard and Poe gently took her off of Duo's back. "I'll go take her too my room so she can get some sleep." Woo and Duo followed Poe out of the archway.
"Is she your sister Wufei?" Relena asked kindly. The former Shenlong pilot shook his head. "Sister-in-law. I was forced into an arranged marriage when I was younger but me wife died defended the colony we lived on. She died in my arms." He said with complete control over his words and emotions. Relena, saddened by the news merely nodded her head, sorry she had asked.
"Jade is your name." Une asked slowly. Jade turned to Une with a strange look on her face. She stood up and moved slowly towards Une as the older woman's eyes began to widen. All of a sudden Jade put her arms above her head and made a curvature motion with them. Her stomach began to slide from one side to another and she moved with quick grace in a small circle. Quatre could hear her humming in the back of her throat but he couldn't make out the song. He was enthralled. Her hair swirled around her and her arms became graceful extensions of her body. She was doing an Arabian dance. She moved with a grace that he had first seen when they had met in the club. Her eyes were alive and a smile crossed her lips. She was alive. Then her eyes dimmed and her body stopped. The music coming from her throat stopped and her arms laid flat to her sides. Une was speechless as was everyone else in the room. "Does that answer your question?" Jade asked.
"What the hell was that Jade?" Steph asked
"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Lily squealed in excitement.
"It's you! Your that girl!" Une said in shock.
Steph turned to Une her face crossed with confusion. "She's what girl? What are you talking about Lady Une?" Une slowly slide down to a seat next to Relena and took several deep breathes before continuing. Jade simply stood there her eyes focusing on something far off in the distance that no one else could see. "After the destruction of 01 in Siberia a prisoner was brought to Mr. Treize during the 12 anniversary of OZ celebration. She was dressed in an Arabian costume and was forced to perform for him. She," Une said pointing at Jade, "was that girl. I remember her eyes and the way her body moved. She danced with more emotion, anger, and passion than I had ever known in my life. I remember that some of the officers began to cry. The man who had brought her there told Treize that she was a prisoner he had bought from a base not too faraway. He told Treize that he was willing to sell the girl to him. Treize bought her." Jade's hands balled into a fist and her knuckles turned white but her eyes and face never expressed anything. Heero moved away from him place on the wall and grabbed her hand. "Is this true?" Jade nodded. "Why? Why didn't you escape?" He asked. She hung her head. "Because Woo had been bought by the same people and she was very weak. I wasn't very well either. I could have escaped but I wasn't going to leave her there. They told me that if I didn't that they would kill her. I convinced Treize to buy Woo off of them." She turned to Heero and looked him straight in the eye. "But Treize let us go. We didn't escape from Treize, he let us go." She said that with amazement in her voice. Heero nodded and dropped her hand.
"HEY! WE'VE GOT TROUBLE!" Captain Petrolli began to shout right as they were all thrown to ground by an earth-shattering explosion. Poe, Woo, and Duo who all had just appeared at the archway clutched on to one another. "THE GUNDAMS! GET TO THE GUNDAMS AND SUIT UP FOR SPACE BATTLE!" Jade yelled picking herself up from the ground. Woo, Lily, and Steph all did the same and as Woo took off down the hallway she stopped for a second and roughly pulled Duo to the side. "Look Maxwell I am handing over Kari's safety over to you. If I come back and there is even one scratch on her I will cut off that long braid myself and hang it on my wall as a trophy." Duo's eyes narrowed and he nodded. Woo nodded back and took off running down the hallway to her fellow comrades. The other took their places and certain stations. Heero and Wufei working on manning the lasers on the outside of the ship, Quatre worked on monitoring the battle and getting battle information. Duo took over the piloting because the Captain had been injured. Poe was trying to cleanse his wound and get him into some kind of stable condition. Relena took a seat next to Quatre and to everyone's surprise began calling out battle targets. Trowa, Noin, and Une went down to the hangar with the pilots to help them.
And yet another battle was fought, not for dominance but for survival.
"Jade! Watch out! There's another one behind you!" She could hear Relena yelling into her ear and she quickly adjusted the controls and maneuvered four degrees to the right while turning around to face the opponent who attacked her from behind. It was a Leo. She aimed her rifle at him and fired a low powered blast. He was disabled. "We can't find where they are coming from!" She could hear Quatre shouting into the microphone. That was true. The ship where they all seem to be coming from couldn't be found. "DAMN PIRATES!" Lily shouted into her system. They weren't in this battle with A's forces. No, they were in a battle against pirates, the lowest pieces of scum to ever roam space. And unfortunately if they couldn't find their ship then they couldn't win this battle. Jade knew what to do. She gritted her teeth and then typed in ZERO on her screen. "Switching to Zero mode." She said right as the yellow light began to surround her.
Inside the ship
"What the hell is she doing!" Heero yelled in shock. Quatre was speechless and his mouth just hung there for a second. "Who the hell would give these girls the fucking Zero system information!" Duo asked to everyone as he tried to dodge the laser beams of the Leos they were attacking. Trowa appeared running through the archway his face smeared with grease and smoke. "What going on! The enemy severed the communications circuit. We haven't heard anything for the last minute or so." There were tears all over his shirt and blood could be seen staining some of material. "Sit down right here and let them fill you in while I bandage you up." Poe said in a voice that meant no arguing just do as I say. Trowa reluctantly sat down and removed his torn shirt so she could have better access to his wounds. "Jade just engaged the Zero system Trowa." Duo called and the sound of another blast hitting the hull could be heard as the sounds of Wufei and Heero's ceaseless firing never stopped. Trowa's eyes widened. "You mean she actually thinks she can handle the system in that busted up thing! She must have been out of her mind." He yelled as he recalled the conversation he had with her. "Why does it look like a disaster area in here?" He asked. She punched a couple of the buttons on the console in front of her saying, "Because I have been having some problems when I have been trying to up grade Light to Starlight. We've tried to run tests on it but every time I get into the cockpit.....lets just say I can't handle the new program." "She can't handle the system." He yelled at them. Quatre tried to communicate with her and the others. "Jade! Lily! Woo! Steph! Come in!"
Out in the battlefield.
"Jade! NO! You can't handle the system! Stop! We'll find another way!" Lily's, Steph's, and Woo's pleas fell on deaf ears as the yellow light began to blind her. It swirled around her. Enveloped her. The world as she knew it for one moment didn't exist in her reality, and she was glad for that one moment of peace. Then, the warm yellow glow turned harsh and bright and the numbers came. Endless numbers. Coordinates. Proportions. Power. She steeled her thoughts. She clamped down on her mind to stop the numbers but something opened her mind again to force them in. The Zero system invaded her mind. And there they were. The flashbacks. The system was sorting through her life, her memories, her past. The past she tried so hard to forget. Dr. J putting his steel hand around her throat. When Dr. J had beaten her within an inch of her life and finally cut off her hair. The time when she had sparred against Heero and he had put the three slices on her stomach with a three bladed dagger. The first time she'd killed someone and felt their life slip through her fingers. The time when the mission when awry and she had been beaten and almost raped by those three guy before feeling their blood spatter onto her body. Heero, holding her, comforting her. When Heero had killed that little girl and her dog. Her, holding him, comforting him. The songs she used to sing. The constant training for stealth, speed, power, and weaponry. The dances she would make up when they were on missions alone doing nothing. The night he went away. The night she would leave too. Heero's self-destruction and her capture. Her friendship with Woo. The fear for Woo during the Arabian dance. The look in Trieze's eye when he bought her. The anger when he touched her. The gratitude when he saved Woo. The confusion when she found Woo with Treize. The release. The building of Light and Hydra. The years of peace. The missions. Steph and Lily, Rose and Moon. Kari. The escape from the burning palace. Heero had lost her. Then he found her again. Family and Friend. And the world stopped. The blinding flash of light overcame her. Then it was gone. Her vision focused and she could see through the stars and darkness. The Zero system had robbed her of her strength but she mustered up what little was left and she plowed at the ship.
Inside the ship.
"So that's where it was all this time. Smart. Une file that down as something we've got to do to this ship." When Starlight rammed into empty space and an explosion was heard they all understood finally where the pirate ship had been located. It had been right in front of them the entire time. The outside of the ship had been covered in reflecting mirrors so that they could hide right out in the open. But she had found them. The other pilots quickly swarmed the ship and allowed them enough time to evacuate off before they destroyed their ship to pieces. They all came back in. Steph in Rose and Lily in Moon were carrying Jade's Starlight in between them. Hydra followed behind. The air was rushed into the ship. All of the people assembled quickly down into the hangar as the girls gingerly carried her down from the gundam. Sally went to her quickly and Heero kneeled down next to her. Her eyes opened for a moment and focused on Heero. In a hoarse whisper she said, "Tell Zech to quit shooting me with Nightmare Shade bullets." And she fell into the darkness of space, into the back of her mind, where no one could hurt her. And she wondered if this is what it felt like to be dead.
*well what do ya think! I am so sorry to everyone who likes this story about my delaying to get this chapter out! I was just having some major writers block. And one more thing. If I am spelling any of these guy's names wrong please let me know. I think the lest I could do after borrowing other corporations' characters is spell their names right. Any way once more I love FEEDBACK! PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE EMAIL ME! This is my first fiction and I hope it really good. And don't worry there is plenty more to come. This is not the last chapter. I repeat this is not the last chapter. But like anyone reads this stuff anyway* Lady Star