Post-Aftermath, Pre-Strife

"'Tis in my head; 'tis in my heart; 'tis everywhere; it rages like a madness, and I must wonder how my reason holds." - Thomas Otway

-

When the comm. link to her computer came on, Noin was about to leave her quarters. Instead, she turned to answer the beckons, and a familiar face appeared on the screen.

"Ashida, I haven't seen you in awhile," she greeted him. She remembered being told about three weeks ago that he would be off-base delivering some vital information on the Martian environment to his scientific superiors. "How was the scientific convention?"

"Tedious," he replied with unusual frankness, making her smile. "I'm glad to be back."

"Glad to have you back."

He nodded graciously, then said, "I called to inform you of a change in plans. Since I'm here, we won't need your services for the expedition to the outer rim of the crater beyond the base. You're free for the day."

"All right. Thanks." Noin turned off the vid-link, then sighed and leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the desk.

Free time wasn't something she needed. Free time meant unoccupied thought, and unoccupied thought meant recollections of her implosion with Zechs, and those recollections always lead to unwanted anger and regret.

Too late.

They hadn't spoken in exactly two weeks, four days, and seven hours. That fact alone, that she'd been keeping count, made her want to hit something.

It wasn't common for her to be this emotionally distressed, but she had finally reached her breaking point. And as they said, beware the fury of a patient person.

"I don't have all the answers, Noin! But I can tell you this: Stop searching for a man who no longer exists."

What had he meant by that? What could he have meant by that?

What she needed was a good workout. It had always helped her to exhaust bad feelings when she'd been in Lake Victoria Academy, and would perhaps help her today.

Noin left her quarters and went towards the gym on one of the lower levels of the base, one of the "gems" Grant had mentioned when she and Zechs had first arrived. It was loaded with the standard workout equipment, mats, bars, electronic weights, punching bags, etc.

Best of all, it was close to empty at the time, with only a few people. Perfect. She didn't think she wanted too many others to see how frustrated she was.

For the better part of the following hour, Lucrezia stretched her body to the limit to rid herself of negative energy. She lifted weights until her muscles ached and shone with sweat. Despite the extreme strain on her upper body, she did up to ten chip-ups on the bar, then twenty push-ups. She kept pressing herself until she felt like collapsing and just falling apart.

But the workout felt amazingly good, a wonderful, constructive way to exorcise demons.

"I know you cared about who I used to be, but it's over now. I've long shed that skin."

Some demons were more stubborn than others.

She turned to the heavy black punching bag. After yanking her shirt over her head to reveal her halter top and wrapping her knuckles, she began her abuse on it.

Stupid, stupid complications, she thought, slamming her fists over and over into the unfeeling bag. It twisted and squeakingly protested on its chain, but Noin continued her assault. She whirled with a backhand, delivered a vicious roundhouse, on and on.

"I can't be that person anymore. I'll never be that person you knew. Stop demanding him from me. He died long ago."

But she wasn't. She wasn't asking him to be something he wasn't. All she was asking was for him to let her understand him again . . . right?

Or was he right? Was she holding on to the past?

Blow after fierce blow. Her body was nearing exhaustion, but her mind forced her to keep going.

"You don't know what you love."

Damn!

Finally, Noin collapsed against the bag, breathing hard, beginning to realize

how much anger she was really feeling, and how it was so unlike her. She didn't know how much more she could take of this.

She was still for a moment. Then she said, without turning around, "How long are you going to stand there?"

-

Zechs had gotten to the gym before Noin had, and had seen her come in. For a while, he just watched her work out, almost entranced by the power she had. It was almost as if she was a different person while her body was taut with working muscle.

In her tank-top and shorts, he saw that her figure had become very sleek. She was all catlike power and disciplined angles. But not even her years of ruthless exertion could have prevented the slim feminine curves, the long, toned legs, or the soft, almost indetectible bronze of her skin.

It felt alien to see her in such a light. Alien because he didn't usually think of her as a woman, but as a fellow soldier.

Why am I seeing this now? Zechs demanded of himself, looking away for a moment, finishing his bottle of water.

It might have been their distance from each other over the past couple of weeks. Some might agree that a man needed to step back from a situation in order to see what he had missed.

And he was as far back as could be without leaving the planet. Their fight had opened wounds, old and new ones alike, for both of them, and some space was necessary in order to allow the sting to go away.

"You are - or at the very least, used to be - a very good friend of mine. A friend who used to laugh and had some brightness to him. A friend I decided was my comrade, my partner. For that friend, I won't let you be alone."

Did she realize what those words had done to him? What he used to be . . . didn't she know that he would never be that person again?

"Was it the mask that killed him? Or first blood?"

And since that person was dead, how could she love him? There was no way she could still have feelings for the person he had become. She had said so herself. She loved the boy at the academy. Not the man in the mask. Not the man on Libra. Not the man here today.

"I was still there through all of that, and no matter how you say you changed, or broke, rose or fell, I still care about you! Through all of those deaths, I still love you!"

He looked back at her, the heat in her movements, and wondered what she was feeling.

Finally, he decided enough was enough. He wasn't used to avoiding his problems. No, he was more accustomed to handling them with either deliberate planning or a 9mm. handgun.

Seemed as if he was going to need both when dealing with Noin.

Grabbing a second container of water, Zechs stood, walked towards her, then paused, waiting patiently until she was finished. He knew better than to interrupt the fury of fists she was inflicting on the punching bag. She might actually turn that fury on him.

At last, she stopped, and demanded, "How long are you going to stand there?"

She turned and as she did, he tossed her the water without a reply. She caught it out of the air easily, gave him a narrow look through bangs damp with persperation, and took a few gulps.

Finally, she murmured, "Thanks."

He nodded, then stated, "We need to talk."

"Dangerous words, Zechs," Noin replied, tossing the now-empty bottle up and down.

"Necessary words."

"I'm not interested." Taking her gaze from his, she flexed the tired muscles in her left arm. "A lot of things were said, and it's going to take more than a conversation to fix the damage those words inflicted. You know it, and I know it, and frankly, I'm sick of it all."

"Avoiding each other isn't going to solve anything," Zechs said calmly.

She looked at him just as calmly, and crossed her arms. "Then what will?"

Silence, now. Neither one knew the answer to that question.

-

It was later that evening when it happened, around seven.

Lucrezia had just finished enjoying a very long, very hot shower, possibly the best therapy in the world, especially when water was rationed at eight minutes a shower. But even that luxury didn't quell the weirdly forboding feeling in her stomach.

It had been with her since her fight with Zechs, so she had assumed it had something to do with him. But when it continued, she realized that it was concerning something else.

What could it be? She pondered this is as she dressed in her usual tank top and jeans. Would there be a break in the water main? An electrical systems shortage? An accident in one of the docks? A crashing satellite?

What?

Her intincts had always been sharp and useful to her in her soldiering days. She made accurate educated guesses about her opponant's next move, and reacted on gut feeling when it came to anything else. She'd been unmatched when it came to leading covert missions because she could handle unexpected situations with ease. It was one of the main reasons she had been made into a military instructor; she could teach young soldiers to look for even the most unusual events on the battlefield, and therefore make them better prepared.

But now . . . she had no clue what was going to go wrong.

Noin paced her room for a few minutes, fretting for no reason she could guess clearly, then decided that she would be better off finding some odd job to do before she drove herself insane in her own room.

The moment she stepped into the hall, the ground quivered beneath her feet and everything went black.

-

What in the hell . . .

Zechs pressed a hand against the wall to steady himself as what felt like a mini-earthquake ripped through the entire base. The lights flickered on and off, and there was the awful sound of twisting metal from somewhere over his head.

The tremors stopped, the lights came back on, and for a moment, all was still.

Red-alert lights started flashing wildly, and Grant's voice came over the P.A.: "Security officers and technical personnel, report to the main section immediately." His voice had lost its usual cool drawl, and sounded truly alarmed. "Get down here as fast as - "

And without warning, a shock wave twice as large as the previous tore into the foundations of the base, and Zechs was harshly thrown to the floor.

It was like being on the inside of a shuttle that had just been heavily blindsided by a cargo ship. He was tossed about wildly, and at one point, hit his head. All was black for a second, then the explosion of movement stopped just as suddenly as it had begun.

He recovered and was on his feet in an instant, but blind, because the lights were out for good, it seemed.

After a moment, the emergency lights came on, lighting the hallways with an eerie bluish sheen, but the P.A. remained silent. He could hear shouts of alarm from other workers somewhere down the hall.

Collecting his thoughts, Zechs came to the most logical conclusion: Raiders.

He weighed his options, and despite a strong desire to rush to Noin's quarters to see if she was all right, he reminded himself that she was not a child and could take care of herself.

But if he didn't see her at the section, he would go looking for her nonetheless.

That decision made, he raced in the direction of the main section.

-

When Noin finally made it to the main section of the base, the electronically operated doors were welded shut. She couldn't get them open for anything, even with help from the others that showed up. Everyone's security codes kept getting rejected from the system, which had suddenly gone insane.

"Damn," she muttered, and turned to the plexiglass windows that allowed passerby to see into the base security operations area. They were protected with plated metal seals, only activated in serious situations.

This was, obviously, very serious.

Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder, and she whirled.

It was Zechs. Faint concern flashed in his eyes.

"You all right?" he asked her.

She nodded, touched at the question, but it wasn't the time for sentiment. "I'm fine, but what the hell is going on here?"

"Raiders," Xack answered for him, pushing his way between the people, Elle in tow. "We've got raiders."

He ripped open a metal panel in the wall and got to work hacking into the system, muttering something about complete systems shutout.

Finally, he managed to crack the new code and the doors slid open.

Grant was at the main console, and before anyone could ask questions, he barked, "Divert all remaining power to security functions. Get me schematics on any distrubances around the perimeter, both on the surface and in space. I want systems scans, defense preperations, everything possible before we lose control again. Someone get a satellite uplink to some outside forces, we need back up. Move it, we don't have time to spare!"

All the requested personnel flooded into the area, manning stations and trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

Eventually, announcements of the situation came from all around the main base operations area.

"The entire electrical system has been compromised. We're operating on mostly auxilary power, here," said one worker.

Noin went over to that worker. "How much do we have?"

"Forty percent."

"We're built to operate on sixty," she stated. "See what you can do."

"The primary computer is on the edge of complete meltdown," Xack said, typing furiously at his section of the console. "I'm going to have to do a core examination to divert all control to this room before every door is sealed shut and we have a complete systems failure."

"Damage report?" Grant requested.

Elle shook her head, eyes locked on a screen. "We're standing strong. The foundations of this base were built for shockwaves, just in case. It'll take about a dozen more breakers like the last before we're any serious danger."

"Just in case, evacuate all unnecessary corridors and unstable sections, and close off the upper sections completely." Elle nodded and got on the P.A. system. "Get the medical crew to spread out and collect the wounded," Grant went on. "Where the hell is Ashida? I need to know how long the environmental systems will hold."

"Ashida's on the surface," Noin answered as she remembered her conversation earlier. "He and his crew might be in danger."

A minor tremor ran throughout the base, and an alarm went off.

"I'm detecting several surface vehicles within the perimeter of the crater," announced another worker. "And just as many space vehicles above the dome."

"Can we get a visual?" Zechs asked, moving up to stand behind Grant. Noin was at his side, all three looking at the large blank telescreen.

A few seconds later, the screen flickered and came alive. Instead of seeing empty space and glittering stars, in the entire area was shown six slender cruisers and a large, scarred main ship.

On a split screen, they could also see ground cruisers closing in, built like mini tanks, and manually taking apart the airlocks with mechanical arms.

"Dammit," Grant cursed. "We're surrounded."

The main ship fired again with its main laser, and the base shook with the force. Red lights flashed, and someone shouted, "One docking bay has been destroyed. We have five remaining."

"Can we get any ships out there?" Noin demanded, her mind racing a mile a minute.

"There's only a twenty percent chance they'd make it out to open space without getting shot down."

In the sudden quiet, only the sound of typing was heard, and suddenly, Xack slammed his fists down on the console, startling everyone.

"Shit!" He narrowed his eyes at what he saw on the computer screen. "We've been infiltrated."

Without hesitation, Grant ran over to the younger man's spot. "Explain," he demanded, and everyone else was listening.

"There are traces of an experienced hacker all throughout the inner systems," Xack explained. "It's very faint, but I can detect it. And I can't fix it. That's why we're losing control, and why we didn't detect any enemy advancement; whoever hacked the system put up some kind of blocking mechanism. But the only way anyone could do that is if - "

" - they installed corrupted parts right into the system," Noin finished for him, and everyone looked at her as she narrowed her eyes. "The last drop-off for parts more than a month ago was bogus. It was raiders all along."

Now that she was thinking clearly, she could see exactly where she had gone wrong. A cargo ship grunt shouldn't have known so much about the base's security. He shouldn't have . . .

"This base seems protected enough," Celluci put in. "You have surface defense, including thermo and laser weapons, force-field shielding, lockdown measures in case of emergency, and a decent satellite uplink to the nearest Preventer station. In fact, it seems a little like overkill to me."

"You've done your homework," Noin pointed out, impressed. "But it honestly isn't enough. In comparison to the heavy security on the Lunar Base, this base has close to no solid defense. Besides, it's all computer controlled, and that's a danger in itself. Trust me, a soldier always knows."

Celluci smiled, looking at the cargo ship. "Indeed."

"Celluci," Zechs growled, coming to the realization as soon as she did.

Suddenly, a worker announced, "Incoming transmission." She glanced at Grant. "It's from the main ship."

"Put it through," the older man ordered.

The telescreen flickered for a moment, then transmitted the rather smug-looking face of Shawn Celluci.

"Hello," he said, smirking at everyone in the room. "Having a few techinical difficulties?"

"You son of a bitch," Grant snarled, one fist clenched at his side. "You're never going to get this base."

Celluci inclined his head, still wearing that infuriatingly confident expression. "I disagree. You see, you'll never regain full control of your computer system in time, certainly not enough to raise defenses, and in about five minutes, my fully armed men will began storming the facility. You have, what, two hundred personnel? Most of them have never even held a gun. Do the math."

At that moment, another shot at the base knocked everyone who wasn't sitting or leaning against the wall down off their feet. Grant stood shockingly steady, glaring furiously at Celluci.

However, Celluci had shifted his attention to Zechs. "Looks like I'm leading this operation, Zechs Merquise. You won't be ordering me around with your incompetance any longer."

"You always were a fool, Celluci," Zechs replied with unsurprising coolness. "And now, you're making a very foolish move."

Though he was now angry, Celluci forced a laugh. "What, do you plan to fight me by yourself? Or will your girlfriend be giving you an assist?"

Undaunted, Noin smiled a rare smile that she reserved for all those bastards she intended to kill. "You're damned right I will. I live to exterminate losers like you, Celluci."

"I'm so terrified," he mocked, but seemed almost unnerved by her smile. "Just for that, I won't let any civilians through the battlelines. Anyone who tries to leave gets shot down, and anyone inside who fights back will be killed.

"I suggest you give in, and I might let you live."

"Vaffanculo!" Lucrezia spat the insulting phrase in street-gutter Italian that made Celluci go pale with rage.

"Fine," he snapped. "Have it your way."

The screen went blank, and Zechs looked at his partner in surprise at her language. He knew some Italian, and had an inkling of what she'd just said.

Noin just shook her head at him, not wanting to admit that she'd just told Celluci to "Go fuck yourself."

It was one of a number of filthy lines she'd learned on the streets of what used to be Italy when she was much younger, and she hadn't had to use them except on very rare occasions. This one counted.

Meanwhile, Grant started shooting orders from side to side. "I want scans on the environmental systems. Divert all available energy to the shields. If we can't go on the offense, we need to take up a defensive stance."

"Grant, nothing short of a laser cannon will bring this base down," Elle stated, sounding confident. "We'll be fine."

Zechs narrowed his gaze at the screen portraying the main ship, and Noin saw his eyes widen in sudden alarm.

She followed his gaze, and felt a bolt of panic.

"Tell me that isn't what I think it is," she whispered.

The ship was equipped with a heavy-duty laser weapon, not nearly as powerful as beam cannon, but damned close enough.

And it was powered up and aimed directly at them.

"Everyone!" Zechs yelled. "Get down NOW!"

He grabbed Noin around the waist and pulled her to the floor just as the beam weapon fired and the world fell apart.