Gundam Wing:





The Four Gundams of the Apocalypse





Chapter 3: Forgotten Memories







*All copyrights belong to their respective owners.





At a hospital on Colony L-4, Lady Une was undergoing intensive surgery. While she was under the knife, the Gundams were waiting for her to come out of emergency surgery as well as their partner. The Gundam who was missing in action, Trowa Barton, some of the Gundam sat, like Quatre and Duo, but Heero and Wufei preferred to stand in this time. Wufei was especially annoyed since the attacker was within his grasp and he got away. Wufei was grinding his teeth so hard that the nearby Miss Noin and Sally Po could hear it. Miss Noin had a hard time trying to cope with this since she was the first one to see Lady Une after she had been attacked. The sight was so horrible that she tried as hard as she could to block it out. As they waited Trowa walked in with his sister Catherine at his side.

"How is she?" Trowa asked

"She's not so good." Quatre answered, "she's been in there for the past three hours, but we're not giving up hope for her."

Trowa took a seat with Catherine at his side, Catherine and Trowa weren't on the best of terms. Especially since Catherine saw that woman in the red dress leaving his caravan. Still in this time of need, Catherine was willing to support Trowa in anyway she could, yet there was something nagging. It was that woman in red, Catherine had the distinct feeling that she had seen her before, but where? It was like seeing someone familiar in a restaurant but not knowing his or her name and as long as she could mull over this it will tear Catherine apart trying to find that answer. Catherine kept her sights on Trowa hoping that the answer will come to her.



The gaze of Catherine at Trowa caught the attention of Duo. He looked over at the two. Catherine never took her eyes off of Trowa even for a second. Trowa was in more desperate need than anyone.

"Hey, Trowa?" Duo called, "Is something wrong?"

Trowa turned his head up slowly to Duo and looked straight at him, "I can't remember." He said

"Can't remember what?" Duo asked

"Last night."

"What do you mean?"

"He means," Catherine stepped in, "that he doesn't remember what happened last night. It's like someone erased them."

Duo then asked Catherine the questions, "what do you know about last night?" He asked

"I saw a woman," Catherine reported, "Trowa took her into his trailer and then a few hours later she left. The next day Trowa says he doesn't remember."

Duo reached into his pocket and searched it for a moment. Then he brought out his hand, entangled in his fingers was a long silver chain and at the end of it was a silver cross. He walked over to Trowa and began to swing the silver cross in front of his eyes. The other Gundams watched as Duo performed his tricks for Trowa. Normally this is something that Duo wouldn't normally do, but for some gut reason he felt that the answer to this craziness lies in Trowa's missing memories. Trowa on the other hand wouldn't allow himself to do anything like this but he also wanted to know the answers for himself. He couldn't stand having that gap in his mind, it was like a popcorn kernel in his teeth that he couldn't pick out.

"Trowa," Duo said calmly, "watch the cross swing."

Trowa watched the cross, his green eyes swinging like the cross from left to right and right to left. It sent its shinning surface into Trowa's eyes and he suddenly was loosing himself in the brilliance of the light.

"Trowa" Duo called, "Listen to my voice. Go back in your mind remember last night."

"There was a woman in red." Trowa said, "she was there at the show. She was staring at me."

Trowa was receptive to Duo's questions, his eyes wide, continuing to watch the cross swing in his zombie-like stare.

"What happened outside your trailer that night?" Duo asked allowing the cross to swing every further back and forth in his hand.

"I went outside to breathe the air." Trowa remembered, "I couldn't get my mind off of that woman in the audience. She kept staring at me. I saw her coming towards me, I didn't approach her, but she approached me."

All of the Gundam pilots never made a sound, they didn't want to disturb whatever it was that Duo was doing. They had that much respect even though they had their doubts about whether if this whole trick was going to work at all.

"What did she do next?" Duo asked still swinging the cross.

"She blew something in my face." Trowa's eyes still fixed on the cross, remembering piece by piece of what happened. "Suddenly I fell in love with her. I didn't know her but I felt everything in my body beating for her. I brought her into my trailer and we made love so passionately that the trailer was shaking."

"Then what happened after that?"

Trowa's eyes then looked glazed over as if he was drunk but they were still open and watching the cross swing back and forth, "She asked me where the Preventer headquarters was. I knew that I shouldn't have told her but something made me. Then she made me forget everything."

"What was her name?"

"Lucia Lynn."

Duo stopped swinging the cross but Trowa's eyes were still wide and moving back and forth from left to right. Duo then brought up his left fist and snapped his fingers. Trowa's eyes immediately turned calm again as if the whole few minutes of Trowa remembering had gone away. Except the memories had now leaked over into Trowa and he now realized what he had done.

"Oh, God." He whispered, "I'm sorry everyone. I gave away the location of Preventer." He buried his face in his hands as if he was about to weep, "Damn it! How could this happen to me?"

Catherine laid her hand on Trowa's shoulder. She had always been there for Trowa in these times of need. With her hand she moved closer to Trowa and hugged him, laying her head on his shoulder.

"It's alright, Trowa." She said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Because of me," Trowa wept, "Lady Une is now near death." Suddenly he felt very odd, it was as if just in him the air conditioning had been turned to full blast, "It feels so cold. I'm so cold."

Catherine hugged Trowa even tighter, "It's alright Trowa. It wasn't your fault."

As Catherine consulted the despairing Trowa, Duo put his cross back in his pocket, "Now we have a name."

"That name, Lucia Lynn." Miss Noin cupped her chin, "It sounds very, very familiar. I swear I heard it before or something close to it."

"I agree." Sally nodded, "I've heard that name somewhere before too. But I can't place it."

Catherine still held onto Trowa trying to get him through his small guilt trip that he has put himself through. With her head on Trowa's bruiting shoulder, she looked to one of the small coffee tables in the waiting room. Of the tables had magazines on it, the very old issues that nearly everyone who ever came into this waiting room has read. The pile was small with only three or four magazines stacked upon one another. The top magazine caught Catherine's attention. It was an issue of a fashion magazine with a flashy and "hip" name. She strained her eyes and looked closer at it. The woman on the cover had short blonde hair, green eyes and was wearing a short skimpy black dress.

The hair may have been different but the neurons in Catherine's brain started to snap and spark. The got up and walked away from the bruiting Trowa and over to the Magazine, she picked it up as if it was some kind of lost treasure and looked at the front picture very carefully. In her mind's eye she imagined the woman with long brunet hair, the red cloak and beret. It was she, Catherine suddenly remembered this issue. She looked at the text plastered all over the front so much that it covered most of the cover girls body. There she saw the name, "Ginger Lynn".

"It's her." She whispered, then she shouted, "IT'S HER!"

All eyes turned to Catherine; she was holding a magazine like a zealot holding their sacred text. She made the one-meter dash back to Trowa and shoved the magazine in front of Trowa. She knew what the answer was but she desperately needed to hear it from Trowa's lips.

"Is this her?" she asked Trowa. She then got down on her knees so that she could see Trowa's face when he gave his answer. She watched as Trowa's eyes grew bigger and bigger as he looked at the front cover. Trowa's face turned to Catherine who waited with agitated anticipation for his answer.

Trowa opened his mouth to tell his answer, "Yes." He said

"Now we definitely know." Wufei commented, "But we're going to have to wait until Lady Une gets out of surgery."

The Gundams waited long hours before the doctors had said that she was going to make a good recovery. However, with the leader of Preventer out of action, some more desperate actions were called up to find out who was the one to give the orders. The general consensus among the Gundam pilots as well as their supporters was that Miss Noin should be the one to command them until Lady Une can be fit to command again.

A search was done on the background of the model named Ginger Lynn. From what was found out about her she was born on Earth, more specifically on the island region of Australia. Her family was very prominent, more specifically they were leaders of a political sort. So, this gave Ginger Lynn some pretty high privileges. Though while she was in college she did modeling, which is where the magazine came from, which was a very old issue by two years. According to her school files, she had graduated with several degrees in Nursing, Chemistry and Botany. After she graduated from college in the year A.C. 195 at the age of 18, she worked in the medical corps of the Alliance Military. However after the alliance collapsed she was never heard from again. Her whereabouts since A.C. 195 are unknown, until now.





* * *





On the moon the four Gundams of the Apocalypse were celebrating their own victory. Inside the abandoned mobile suit/mobile doll factory the raised voices echoed front and back through the facility.

"Hooray!" They would shout, "the first blow is struck! Lady Une is dead! Nothing will stand in our way!"

Luther got up onto his high pedestal, which was only a conveyer belt raised high above the ground. The belt that once had mobile suits and mobile dolls alike rolling down past to be sent out to meet their enemies. But that was a time long gone, now the belt served as a platform for one of the most evil of men.

"Horsemen!" He called and the rest of the horsemen dropped the celebration as if choreographed to do it on cue. They stopped to hear their masters' words, "We may have won this battle but this war is far from over."

Malcolm had asked the question of their plan, "Do we go to the next phase, Death?"

Luther smiled like the Cheshire cat suffering from delusions of grandeur, "Yes, we are to go to Stage 2 to bring about the apocalypse!"

"Apocalypse now!" The Horsemen said in unison.





* * *





Back on Colony L-4, a plan was being devised at the Preventer temporary headquarters, The Winner Family Mansion. Since Quatre was now head of the family, he had the authority to allow this. IN light of the new information that they had, a plan of attack had to be devised as well as figure out whom they were up against. To add onto the plan hatching they were also waiting for one more Preventer who was on his way to the mansion. The Agent Preventer Wind. This agent was known by many names, one of the most famous was the one that he used in the days of Oz and the Alliance Military. The name of Zechs Marquise, the Lightning Count, but he was also known by the name (his most true name) Milliardo Peacecraft. In this time he preferred to be called Preventer Wind since he had abandoned the names Zechs and Miliardo.

Preventer Wind walked into Quatre's office seeing the faces of the Gundam Pilots as well as his love, the woman who is now leader of Preventer, Lucrezia Noin.

"Preventer Wind, reporting in." He said closing the dor behind him and taking a seat.

"That takes care of it." Quatre said, "We're all here. Now we know the name of one of the enemies that attacked us. Now the real problem is finding them."

"With the name being a dead end in the first place," Miss Noin asserted, "finding our enemies is easier said than done."

"Regardless, we still need to find them before they cause more suffering."

The door to Quatre's office slammed open. The enormous boom the door made attracted the attention of everyone in the room to that single point. At that point of the doorway stood Quatre's right hand man, the leader of the Maganac Corps, Rasid. The look on his face was as if he had just been witnessed to the greatest of catastrophes. He gasped for breath still his face frozen in absolute terror.

"Master." He gasped, "Quatre.turn on.the television."

Quatre didn't question why, he went for the nearest TV monitor. The only one was embedded in the wood finished wall of his office. He quickly turned it on and he heard Rasid's next ominous words.

"It's a declaration of war." He said

Quatre kept his eyes on the screen while his ears picked up the sound. The picture was still coming through but the words sent waves through the room.

"In the year A.C. 195, five Gundams came to the Earth. It was supposed to be the last sign of the apocalypse, but the messengers failed."

The picture became clear and the members of Preventer saw two mobile suits. They were immediately recognizable, one suit was gray and looked like a Gundanium form of a woman. It was the Gundam Famine; next to it was a mobile suit that looked as heavily armed as the Gundam Heavyarms. It was the Gundam War.

The greatest connection made was the voice that made this declaration. The voice's tone was commanding but it still belonged to a woman. A woman that Trowa Barton was supposed to forget. Unfortunately, the voice was haunting him, he knew who it was, Lucia Lynn.

"Now," the voice of Lucia continued, "We shall be the ones to finish what the Gundams should have all that time ago. Apocalypse now!"





* * *





The day was peaceful, yet the place was unusual to Mariemea Kushrinada's eyes. It looked like a rural countryside. The green rolling hills, tall trees, warm breezes, a blue sky with white clouds over head, fields of corn, cabbages and other vegetables. In the distance were the mountains fuzzed over with the atmospheric haze. Around her she stood in a wheat field that was still green that hadn't turned its seasoned brown color. Next to the field was a road that was unpaved but was treaded upon by the numerous numbers of carts and horses that had passed over this road. Down the path it stretched into a patch of trees. The trees covered the road like a tunnel of branches, trunks and leaves intermixing with each other.

Mariemea enjoyed this place, the warm breeze brushing her cheek, through her hair and over the wheat making it a sea of green, but it didn't last for very long. The blue-sky overhead turned dark with the clouds blocking the suns glorious rays. The wind that was once gentle and warm turned furious and cold. Mariemea looked into the tunnel of trees and the leaves there were blowing as if inside a tornado or like evacuating people. Inside Mariemea's heart she could hear her own heart beat starting to beat faster and faster. Something was coming and she couldn't run. She simply stood there as if her feet were planted into the ground like the wheat around her. She stood helpless to watch the horror that was coming from the tunnel of trees.

The horror came, one by one they came from the tunnel of trees. Four riders were coming up the road to Mariemea. Each of the riders were dressed in black, they wore hoods that were so dark that their faces couldn't be seen, their robes tattered and flowing over the horses they rode. Each horse was black with red eyes that burned within their faces. As they rode up the beaten down path they brought darkness with them. Mariemea could feel the evil that was emanating from them. Before they came the entire world was full of color and life, but then they came and all life and color was gone. Even Mother Nature herself was afraid of these creatures.

They came closer to Mariemea and she still stood there feet frozen to the ground. Her eyes wide as the riders stopped at the road beside her. She could smell the horses and they stunk with the stench of death and decay. The horses' eyes fixed on her and she could feel the cold stare of whatever ungodly eyes were under the hoods of those riders.

"Mariemea." one of the riders spoke, the voice was colder than the harsh wind. It silently sent shivers through Mariemea. She still couldn't move, she couldn't run and couldn't get out. "You're angel of death awaits." The rider said slowly and coldly as it went to its side.

Its hand was covered in rough and dirty steel that was scaly like a fish. The riders pulled out swords that were all rough and unpolished. Mariemea knew that it didn't matter to the riders if the swords were ugly, just as long as it was sharp. The riders, with their ugly swords out, glided off of their horses as if they were specters rather than men. They landed on the road with a clunk sounding out from their armor covered feet. They held their swords up to their hoods as if by ritual, in coming closer to Mariemea. She looked down to her feet and found bugs crawling out from under the ground as they came closer. Spiders, centipedes, worms, crept and crawled past Mariemea's feet away from the riders in black. She looked back at the riders who now held their swords like scorpion stings, the points out and coming close to Mariemea. She screamed as the riders in black drew back their swords and impaled Mariemea like a piece of meat.

It started as a beautiful dream but turned to a black nightmare. She woke up in her bed back on Colony X-18999 far from the black riders of her nightmare.

"It was only a dream." She whispered, "just a dream."

Laying her head back against her pillow and feeling the sweat against the back of her head. Now that it was over, Mariemea felt relieved to come back to the safety of her bed.

In an instant that security was shattered, a black gloved hand came over Mariemea's mouth. Her heart jumped she wanted nothing more than to scream but it was only muffled. She looked up and found whom the black gloved hand belonged to. She saw a great figure standing over her, its black robes flowing down over the bed, and its great hood covered its face only exposing a metallic mask. The mask looked like a skull, a human skull. Mariemea tried to scream but the hand over her mouth countered it.



"Sweet dreams," a metallic sadistic voice said, "Mariemea Kushrinada."

















To be continued.