AC 209

Matt lifted his head as he heard the soft thunk from nearby. There was only a brief delay from his work as he again turned his head to work with the broken pair of night vision goggles.

Fia's worn out sneakers barely crunched on the grass as she walked to the tree Matt was sitting against. She reached forward and yanked out the arrow which was imbedded two feet above where Matt's head hung over his invention. A target had been roughly carved into the large old tree which stood on the edge of a forest. Fia pulled out a few more arrows from branches nearby and a few from the ground around the brunette.

She walked back across the small field that surrounded this specific base and found her bow sitting in the grass where she left it. She placed her arrows in a pile and picked up the weapon, looking for a new target. Instead, her piercing emerald eyes fell on the third member of their trio, leaning against a tree about ten feet from the one her target, and Matt, were on.

"Aren't you two supposed to be training?" She shouted at the two boys who lounged about, enjoying the sunlight. Matt looked up at her and blew the strands of his soft brown hair out of his face before returning to his work.

"Okay....I guess you are training, but what about you?" She turned her eyes to Alae who was still not paying attention to her. He sat just within the edge of the forest and the sunlight flickered over him with the breeze, bits of gold and shadow playing on his face. His face was intent as he looked from the sketchbook in his lap to the branches far above.

Fia watched the boy concentrate, his blue eyes shifting from dark as he leaned over his sketch, to light when he gazed up into the sunlight. 'How come he gets to relax while I'm working my ass off?' Cocking back one of her arrows, Fia closed one dark eye and pulled her strong arm back. She let the string go and the arrow flew straight at the boy with the soft twang of the string.

Alae bent down the slightest inch as the metal tipped wooden arrow pierced the soft bark of the tree. One of his unruly bangs fell into his eyes and he pushed away the light brown hair which was beginning to turn orange and blond from sitting too long in the sun. Finally his concentration was broken as he looked up at the arrow which hung like a limbo stick above his head.

Fia stalked over, upset by the fact that Alae had once again dodged her shot, and peered down at the boy's sketchbook.

"Alae....why are you drawing a squirrel?"

"Cause." The boy went back to his work and looked up at the gray squirrel who happily sat on the branch eating his acorn. The branch was about 20 feet above the ground and on a nearby tree, giving the artist a beautiful silhouette of the small creature as the sun filtered through the leaves behind him. Fia's hand clenched on her bow and reached with her other hand to grab the arrow in the tree. Pulling the string taut, she sent the arrow flying. Alae tried to stop her but had been too engrossed in his picture to do so in time.

The acorn in the squirrel's small hands was split in hand by the sharp tip of the arrow. Being a small and jittery creature, the squirrel leapt a few inches before running away along the branch.

"Why'd you do that?" Alae stood up and his solemn glare caused Fia to take a step back. Or possibly it was because when he had stood his face ended up directly in front of hers. And very close.

"Training. We are supposed to be training here. I'm tired of Duo always going easy on you guys." Alae sighed heavily before turning away and picking up his sketchbook, closing it up and tucking it under his arm.

"Wait.." Alae stopped in his tracks on his way to Matt and turned back to look at Fia. She was wearing a black sports bra and a pair of loose black athletic shorts. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail and one strand fell into her face.

"I'm sorry I chased away your subject." Alae still stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes a dark blue in the shadow of his wild hair. Then he gave her a small smile.

"It's okay. I was nearly done anyway."

"Can I see your sketches?" Fia blurted it out and ran forward, all her awkwardness forgotten when Alae's forgiving smile returned.

"If you want." He handed the book over and Fia began to flip through it. There were a lot of picture of Neo-Zero, Simetra, and Bladefire. A few pictures of random things such as squirrels, original creations, and what seemed to be a strange obsession with shadows. One of the pictures was nothing but the shadows cast by a full moon on the grounds around the base. Alae had painted that picture, while most of the others were only sketched, and Fia found it the most beautiful so far. Then she turned the page.

The remainder of the pictures were of Duo, and Fia smirked at Alae with an eyebrow raised.

"I see.." There were also a few of Alae himself, Matt, and even herself. But the majority seemed to be of their violet eyed teacher.

"Well....you know...." Alae looked uncomfortable and bit his lip as Fia continued to scrutinize every picture of Duo. 'Oh man. She's getting closer- '

A loud explosion caused Alae and Fia to both jump before assuming fighting stances and searching for the source of the apparent attack.

* * * * * * * * *

Jason knocked loudly on the door and hoped for once that Duo would reply. Inside Shinigami lay on his bed, with his eyes glazed over, half asleep. He was laying on his bed, his arms, legs, and braid hanging off of all the edges. The banging of his door was just barely enough to stir him from his lazy daydream and he sat up. Walking to the door, Duo stretched his arms high above him and rubbed his eyes.

Jason stood impatiently on the other side of the door, the large man staring down at Duo with as much of a grimace as he could muster.

"Wassup. Whatdya wake me fer." Duo slurred out, his mind still taking a nap, whether his body acknowledged it or not.

"You're client is here."

Duo just blinked and cocked his head to one side. Jason sighed heavily before slapping his forehead.

"You forgot? How could you forget? It's Wednesday."

"Okay....hump day. So maybe I forgot to find someone to hump-"

"YOU'LL BE THE DOWNFALL OF US ALL!" Jason interrupted before Duo could continue his train of thought. The violet eyes blinked up at him before suddenly widening. 'Wednesday. Something important is happening one Wednesday, but what?'

"Jason. Exactly who am I supposed to be meeting today??"

"Him." Jason took a step aside and behind him stood a man in a suit. Black pants and a black jacket went well with the extremely light pink button up shirt that the young looking man wore. 'Oh shit.'

"Duo. It's been a while." A warm, welcoming smile and the forgiving blue eyes of the head of the entire Winner fortune met with Duo's worried violet.

"Quatre man, I am SO sorry, really." Quatre had taken longer to fill in than any of the other pilots, and he had gone to live the remainder of his life in the colonies, where he could run his family's business. His body had aged slower even than Duo's, and he retained the youthful looks of a person in their early twenties. His hair had grown out a bit, and was slicked back across his head, in a very business like fashion.

"Duo....you don't have to apologize." Qautre still punctuated his conversation with disarming smiles, but Duo had heard rumors that in the past few years the Winner heir had grown cold and vicious in his dealings with any other enterprises. 'I shouldn't be so quick to believe everything I hear. Quatre is Quatre, and he always will be.'

Duo took a few steps forward and picked up the former pilot in a huge bear hug. Quatre just laughed and shook his head. The two smiled and for a moment, were teenagers again.

"It's been quite a few years since I last came to visit. As I said in my email, our company is prospering quite a bit. We have a surplus of money coming in, and I'm sure the Shin Gamia orphanage could use another donation." Quatre winked at him, and after standing there in shock, Jason finally let out a sigh of relief. 'Good thing that good for nothing didn't blow our only chance at more funding.' He shot a caring glance at the brunette who never grew out of his carelessness.

"Well, the last amount has gotten us farther than we could have imagined."

"So I see. This base is pretty good looking." As the two walked down the hall, Quatre turned his blond head every which way to inspect what his money had been doing all this time.

"You're lucky, me and the kids were gonna have a spar with the Gundams today."

"Really? You don't mind if I watch do you?"

"I'd be honored, Quatre old buddy." Slinging his arm around the man's slimmer shoulders, Duo guided him down a few halls that would eventually lead to the training fields outside.

"But first....we must go get the new pilots."

"That's right, the boy Matt and Heero's son." Both stiffened at the reminder. All four pilots were aware of the new set of pilots, and did everything they could to help them out. None felt pleased about keeping the secret from Heero, but it was a necessary loss.

"And the newest pilot, Fiasha. She's got amazing talent."

"Hmm, I don't believe I've heard about this girl. Where did you find this one?" Quatre smirked up at his old friend as Duo feigned surprise.

"Find. I don't FIND my trainees. I hand pick them specially."

"Uh huh. Where'd ya find her?"

"She picked my pocket one day. A fellow street orphan, I figured I'd give her a shot and she turned out better than I expected."

Relieved that his stressed friend remembered how to laugh, Duo enjoyed the chuckle he had gotten out of him.

"Typical Duo." Their trek halted in front of a large metallic door. Duo walked forward and slipped his keycard through the lock and punched in the code. A reassuring green light turned on and the door slid open to the scent of a warm spring breeze and the sound of laughter.

"What the.." Alae and Fia were laying on the grass, or rather rolling on it. Both were laughing hysterically and clutching at their stomachs as if they were in pain. Duo and Quatre exchanged confused glances.

"Achoo." A small cloud of dust rose from nearby before Matt turned around, his entire face blackened. His brown eyes fluttered inquisitively, before holding up the smoldering remains of the night vision goggles he had been working on.

"Nice to see you again Matt." Quatre smiled at the pilot he had met many years ago, on his last trip to assess the proper use of his funding. Matt tried to wipe away the black grime on his face with his hand, but gave up after a while and walked forward to stand in front of the two legendary pilots. He shook Qautre's hand, then his eyes widened as he looked down.

The billionaire held up his soot covered hand and laughed heartily. Duo let his head hang in shame and rubbed his eyes. 'I can't believe this. Useless. They're completely freakin useless.'

"Hey, who's this guy?" Alae jumped up and ran over to greet the two and Fia followed slowly.

"You must be Alae. My name is Quatre. I fought in the war with Duo."

"Are you another Gundam pilot?" Fia finally became interested in the conversation and ran up next to the Zero pilot.

"Yes he is. This is Qautre Winner. Our financial supporter." The color drained from Fia and Alae's faces, and possibly from Matt's, although under the dust no one could tell.

Smirking, Duo folded his arms as his pilots stood straighter and finally grasped how important this visit was, not just a reunion of past fighters.

"Why don't you three prove that I've been training you well and show off for Quatre here?" Turning to the fried brunette, Duo shook his head again. Matt's brown bangs were standing on end in every direction away from his face and they were streaked black as well. "You go get two sets of Alae's katanas, while Fia shows Quatre what she can do."

Matt nodded and passed by Duo before the older pilots called out to him. "And wash yourself up a bit, huh?" Matt smiled back at him, his white teeth showing up bright against his charcoal face, before turning on his heel and running through the door into the base.

"So while we wait, why don't you show Quatre here how you're training has been going?" Duo crossed his arms and leaned against the building, ready to enjoy the show.

Fia nodded and picked up her bow from where she had left it. Turning, she put on a cocky grin and stared at her instructor.

"How many?"

Feeling out of the loop, Quatre looked between the two, his bright blue eyes blinking in confusion.

"Three. You should be able to do it." Fia never understood why Duo had such endless confidence in her, but she picked up three of her arrows and went to stand in front of the forest. Placing two of the arrows in her mouth, she cocked the third into her bow and pulled it back, ready to fire.

Then she closed her eyes. No one made a sound and only a few birds in a far away tree broke the stillness with their song. After a few minutes of complete silence, a soft breeze blew by. With three sets of eyes watching her intently, Fia's eyes flew open and the green emerald flashed in the bright sunlight. Spinning abruptly to the left she released the arrow and it flew straight into the forest.

A leaf fluttered slowly down on the wind, swaying back and forth, until the arrow shot straight through. Two halves of a leave spiraled downward, and Quatre watched in amazement while the other two boys smiled proudly. Before he could open his mouth to compliment her, Fia had taken an arrow from her mouth and knelt down on the grass, angling her bow high into the treetops. She fired and the arrow pinned a leaf to the bottom of one of the highest branches in the tree. Then she cocked the final one and stood up, firing down the line of trees, slicing another slowly descending leaf in half.

"Wow." Quatre clapped, still stunned by the girl's amazing aim and reflexes. She just smiled and thrust the tip of her long bow into the ground and leaning against it. The door on the wall next to where Duo was leaning opened up and Matt stepped out, his entire head soaked, but now back to its real color. He had four sheaths slung over his shoulder and took them down before smiling at Duo.

"Good timing Matt. Now Quatre, we can show you what Alae can do." Duo took two of the practice katanas and tossed them to Alae. He caught the sheaths and hung one on each of his shoulders, letting the sheaths cross each other over his back. This was the way he always wore them, and the way they were positioned in his Gundam.

"So, you have the mistress archer, are you going to show me what these two boys can do?"

"Well, we can't really show you what Matt's capable of. Jason is busy right now."

Quatre cocked his head to the side, he was becoming more and more confused as this day went on.

"Matt is a master kick boxer. His size and strength helps him with that. The only problem is that the kid's so good that he beats every single opponent except his father. He's also an evil genius."

Quatre looked at the disarmingly kind and silent boy who just grinned at him and flexed an enormous bicep.

"So I see...." 'And I thought our group was a weird bunch of pilots.

"Right then. Here we go." Duo lifted up both sheaths and prepared to take out the blades when a light skinned hand stopped his. He looked at his old friend for a second, unsure of the decision, but then trusting that Quatre knew what he was doing.

Quatre took off his jacket and rolled up the sleeves on his button up shirt. He too slung the two sheaths over his back like Alae. The son of Heero gawked at him in surprise.

"What? I can't fight him Duo. What if I hurt him?"

"Hahaha. This is the former pilot of the Sandrock gundam. Do your best Alae, and don't worry about Quatre, he can handle himself." Duo grinned, wondering about the outcome of this strange battle between generations.

The two faced off against each other, Alae grinning maniacally while Quatre stood calmly with his hands on his hips. Reaching up very slowly, Alae took the handles of his two katanas and drew them from their sheaths. Brandishing the glinting metal blades in front of him, he waited for Quatre to draw as well. But the blond remained in his place, a small smile playing on his pale face.

Shifting his weight forward, Alae ran full tilt at the Winner heir and lunged with both blades. His blue eyes widened in surprise as the older man leaned quickly to the side, avoiding both blades. With one hand propping himself up, Quatre grabbed a sword from his back and slashed at the young Yuy.

Alae saw the sharp blade heading for his unguarded stomach and quickly stabbed both blades into the ground. Like a pole vaulter he swung himself over the blades till he was doing a handstand on them. Quatre's katana struck both of Alae's and the sharp metallic ring meant that the fight had really started.

Alae jumped down and yanked both his swords from the ground, holding them up to protect himself. Quatre was still lying on the ground, his left hand propping him up, but now he stood, and withdrew the second katana from its sheath. Circling slowly around each other, the two pairs of blue eyes bore deeply into one another. One set were calm and still gentle, a small smile helping to add to that effect. The other set, however, had become cold and unfeeling, the face emotionless, a mask of perfection that rarely appeared, and when it did only during the most dire of battles.

'His eyes look like Heero's.' For the second that Quatre relaxed while thinking this, Alae flung himself forward, swiping at Quatre's legs, hoping to knock him down. The older man jumped easily above the two blades and swung his two downward. Alae lept back out of the range of the twin katans, which slashed into the thick grass but stopped before hitting dirt.

Quatre stood with his blades barely touching the ground, and straightened his back. Alae was still crouching against the ground, about five feet away from where the other blond stood. He was bent in the same position he had landed in when he had jumped away from the last attack and brought his katanas slowly up into a defensive position.

Quatre smiled even further, raising one of his hands and carefully using one finger to beckon Alae to attack, while still holding onto his weapon. With a deep breath, the boy ran forward, preparing to hack at Quatre from both sides. The body was gone when he got there. Quatre lay on the ground and brought his feet forward, connecting with the young boy's stomach and hurling him through the air behind him.

Alae tried to roll carefully, so as not to impale himself, but was less than graceful. Sitting up on his knees, Alae felt something cold brush against his skin. Shifting his eyes down, he saw his reflection in the cross section of two katanas. Quatre stood directly in front of him, his katanas crossed and like a pair of scissors were pressed against Alae's neck. Feeling the sharp sides of both blades against both sides of his neck, Alae still looked up and his soldier's mask fell away as he grinned. Quatre just looked confused. With one flick of wrists he could send Alae's head rolling. Only then did the older blond notice something pressed against his stomach.

Duo couldn't believe it. They had ended in a stalemate. Quatre had been preoccupied by placing his blades in the correct position to decapitate Alae to notice that the boy had made sure his swords were pointing up, just in case of such an attack. Quatre looked down at the two swords pressing against his gut and smiled.

"I think we should call this a tie. What do you say?"

Alae nodded and stood up, still wary of the katanas until they left his neck.

"Nicely done Alae. You held your own against a true Gundam pilot. And you," Duo looked at Quatre with a raised eyebrow, "Should be here with us if your skills are still that good."

"I guess old habits die hard." Quatre smiled and in the bright sunlight, with swords in hand, Duo would swear he was still the Sandrock pilot so feared by its enemies.

"Well, I have a big surprise for you three." All three trainees looked at their instructor and for once were respectful. Duo just grinned his classic smile that had not been used in years, and now the three looked ill.

"You three are going to pilot your Gundams, and I'll be your opponent."

"WHAT?!?!"

* * * * * * *

cliffhanger!! Hehe. This chapter took forever, and this was originally only one half of the chapter. I had to break it into two. Sorry the updates are few and far between, I have so much to do right now, I'm busy all the time. Leave a review! Please! :::begs::::