All That You Are and All That You Do
Welcome to OMWOS's crazy question day. Once in a while she will have these. She will ask everyone one question and they will e-mail their answers to her e-mail addy. Everyone ready here goes. The question of the day is OMWOS is starting her career as a Vet tech. So she needs to get her A.S degree in Animal Science. One of the class she will be taking is Show's and Expo's. She has decided on steer as her animal. She will have to train it from birth, feed it, lean how to groom, break it so it's used to humans and Goddesses. In fact the animal will be her's for the whole semester and summer. So she's asking for help on a name. So she likes the names (origin) Solo (Gundam Manga) Hamburger Helper ^_^;; (TV commercial) Wataru (A wind named Amnesia) Toshi (dictionary) Hashiko (Television) So that's it. Have a happy time deciding. Thank you very much. OMWOS out
Disclaimer: Gods I wish I owned them but I don't. Warnings: AU, New Chara's, a tiny bit of Angst, maybe some OOC (you try writing with a cast of 6 plus supporting actors plus extra's and when it's been six months since you've seen a episode of G.W. and you're poor and have no job and no money to buy G.W. on video. Darn you college for sucking up what little money I have.) Rated: PG-13 for cursing and violence. Archive: If any one wants to, they can put my story up on their site. As long as you e-mail and tell me, so I can visit and check it out. Feedback: Yes please, with Duo on top of whip cream
CHAPTER 8
"Hey, what's up my friends," Rae called to the two men in front of her.
The men looked at each other, one of them spoke up. "Who are you?"
"I'm hurt, you don't remember me," Rae said putting a hand over her heart. She faked a choked sob. "We were best friends when we were little Billy."
"John," the man said.
"Yeah whatever. The boss wants me to take over for you guys."
"Are you sure? You're kind of young to take over Security."
"What so hard about watching a few monitors. I've had lots of practice watching T.V. Now are you going to piss me off and make me get Quinns or are you going to obey me like good little soldiers."
"Come on man," the other guy spoke up. "Let the kid take over. I need to take a pee break anyways. We can grab something to eat."
The man rubbed his hand across his chin. "All right," he finally decided. "We'll give you a chance. Don't screw up kid or your ass is grass."
"Yes sir," Rae gave a quick salute. 'Jerk,' she thought to herself. She watched the two men leave and she quickly shut the door of the Security room.
Rae plunked into the swivel chair and spun around once. "Don't screw up kid or your ass is grass," she imitated in a gruff voice. "Psh. Who does he think he is. Dork." Rae glanced at the monitors in front of her. "Lets see what do we have here. Looks like the Cook's doing a little more then cooking", she replied at the make out scene with the cook and his helper miss. Bunny. 'What a stupid name. Ew, I think I'll skip lunch.' She thought as the woman sat on the counter.
"What else have we got." she scanned the other monitors. "The commander playing chess. A training class, my class." Rae stopped, her brown eyes focused on the screen before her. She watched one man after another attack someone and end up on his or her back, stomach, and butt.
"Who can this deadly person be," Rae said out loud. "Move your fat head Riker. Ah lets see who we have here." She saw a patch of dark hair, then the persons face. Rae's mouth dropped open. "O'Brien! Huh, who would of thought? He's pretty good, he might be a problem. Guess I'll just have to eliminate him."
"On with my schedule," Rae said sitting up; she reached out and typed something into the control panel. "My, what do we have here? The Barge's entire schedule all by it's little lonesome self. Well don't worry Aunty Merciless is here."
Rae began to type relentlessly at the keyboard. 'Hm, looks like OZ has had some time on their hands to create an encrypted box around their files. Well that's no problem for me, Hacker Merciless.' Rae let out an evil laugh. She continued typing. Her fingers flew along the keys breaking through one block at a time.
'You'd think OZ would learn, tsk tsk. Their defense system needs major work, not to mention their security. Letting a little Hacker in here all by herself. While anything could happen, like an fire test in dock twelve.' Rae pressed a button; a faint alarm could be heard down the hallway.
'Or we could have a total lock down in the showers,' Rae reached over and pressed another key with a finger. She grinned smugly. 'Or even we could have a little glitch in the calendar and suddenly we have a day of leave.' Rae hacked into the schedule and quickly changed it. 'There, now I really have security patrol. You know I can get the files I need right now, if Dork and Stupid don't come back.'
Rae flipped her braid over her shoulder and glanced at the closed door. 'To Hack or not Hack, that is the question. To Hack'. Rae shifted in her seat and cracked her knuckles. Her fingers splayed across the keyboard she began the challenge of hacking into the center Mainframe of Barge.
To her dismay she didn't realize that she was being traced, by Quinns. He sat on deck, his chin propped up by his fists, a scowl shadowing his face. 'Who can be hacking Mainframe,' he pondered as the team around him traced the hacker.
"Will you hurry up, the hacker has already broken through the first wall of defenses," he shouted impatiently. Frustrated he stood up and began to pace the floor, growing agitated by the second. Just as he was about to pull out what little hair he had left one of the officers stood up with news.
"Sir, we have good news and bad news."
"Tell me," Quinns ordered sitting back down.
"The Hacker is on Barge sir. In fact we've pinpointed the deck they are on. That means we have a spy on board."
"What's the good news then," Quinns asked.
"That was the good news, sir. The bad news is the Hacker is Merciless."
"God dammit!" Quinns slammed his fist on the chair's arm. "We might have had a chance," he muttered to himself, he then looked back up at the men. "What the hell are you still doing here, find me Merciless. NOW!"
The statement jarred the men into action. They sprang forward, orders barked out. "You take the south entrance. You three grab your guns. The rest follow me." Soon an army of ten men were racing down the hallway, towards Rae.
"All right," Rae said to herself as she broke through the last defense line. She glanced at her watch, six minutes had ticked by. 'I've got to hurry.' She brought her attention back to the screen in front of her, missing the camera shot of men running towards the security room she was in.
'Just a couple of... uh oh.' Rae looked up as she sighed, trying to break through a block that popped up out of nowhere. The sixteen year old watched Oz soldiers running down a hall, with guns in their hands. 'That can't be good. Damn! They must of traced me.' Rae set to the task of backing out of her attack. She looked back up at the screens and realized she didn't have enough time to get out of the room.
"Open this door," an officer yelled banging on the door. "We have you surrounded."
The Russian teen stood up and braced for an attack. 'Way to go genius, how are you going to get yourself out of this one.' Her dark brown eyes scanned the room for a solution.
"Break down the door," the soldier yelled again. With one final shove the door gave way and the men spilled into the empty room. With a quick search they found nothing. "Spread out men, Merciless might still be here." The OZ soldiers split up and ran in different directions, leaving the room.
Two minutes ticked by and a soft screeching sound echoed through the security room. With a loud bang the air ventilation screen clanged to the floor. Rae's head appeared from the hole in the ceiling and looked around. She pulled her head back in and a second later her feet emerged followed by the rest of her body. Hanging in mid-air by one hand was not the most convenient position to be found in.
Rae twisted her body and stared ruefully into the dark blue eyes that glinted back at her. She cleared her throat. "You would not believe what just happened."
"Try me," the smooth yet harsh voice said.
Rae scratched her head with her free hand, and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. "Well, I was doing some repair work on the ventilator. I wasn't getting much air and in my opinion that's a bad thing. So I climbed up to see if there was anything stuck but as I did this asshole of a man, no offense, barged into the control room welding a very big gun."
Rae swung a little as she moved her free arm in motion to her words. "Since I was unarmed at the time, I decided it was best to stay put where I was, then act like a hero and get myself killed. He hacked into the center Mainframe of Barge and was looking for something. I couldn't quite see what it was."
"Well, to make a long story short, the man didn't have enough time to get whatever he was looking for and backed out. He grabbed his gun and took off, leaving me behind, unnoticed and unhurt." Rae finished, putting a hand on her hip. She stared innocently at the boy in front of her. 'Come on, buy the damn story, or else I'll have to kill you. And I don't like killing cute boys. '
"So what do say O'Brien, do you believe me," she said trying to act natural as she swung a little to see if there was anything in the room she could use as a weapon.
Suddenly Max was right below her and grabbing her around the waist. For a split second Rae froze and thought he had caught on and was going to bring her in.
"You better come down before someone gets the wrong idea," Max said, his hands still planted on Rae's hips.
Rae released her grip and tried not wince as she let the black haired boy gently put her down. Just days earlier she had been in a fight and kicked her opponent's ass, but not before he left her with a pretty bruise the size of a colony.
Unluckily Max saw her reaction and pulled away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"You didn't hurt me," Rae said squaring her shoulders. "No one hurts me."
Max stared at the small girl, his silent blue eyes piercing through her wall of boldness and lip. He nodded his head slightly and swiftly turned towards the door.
"Hey O'Brien." Max turned around at his given name. "Thanks." Rae said flipping her braid over her shoulder. The boy nodded again. "Say, do you want... to get some lunch or something. I know it's a little early, but the early soldier gets the food."
'Why not.' "Sure." he replied, forcing the faked happiness, hopping she wouldn't noticed.
Rae smiled her dazzling smile that made a real smile creep across Max's lips but vanished before it could totally form. "All right," she said. "Lets go. Oh and O'Brien, I wouldn't eat the soup. Trust me."
*
Ma-ling glanced behind her making sure she wasn't being followed and continued her trek through the wooded area. She felt eyes on her and she looked around. Finding nothing she pushed through a thick brush, scrapping her arm on a sharp twig that jutted out. She ignored the sharp burning pain as usual and preceded until she came upon the sleeping giant she was looking for.
There, she felt the eyes on her again. Ma-ling whirled around and whipped out her gun from her dress pocket, she was faced with a horrible and dreadful...squirrel. It sat on its hindquarters, grooming itself ignoring the girl with the shinny thing in her hand.
Ma-ling shook her head and sighed, slipping her gun back into her pocket.
"You know if I was an enemy, you would of already been dead," a soft voice said from above her.
Ma-ling looked up saw Trowa sitting on a tree limb ten feet above her. His one visible eye gleamed with mirth at her blank expression that she pasted on. "And I'm supposed to be impressed." she replied haughtily.
Trowa said nothing as he leaned against the truck of the tree and closed his eyes. Ma-ling arched an eyebrow but remained silent. She turned away from the nature boy and was faced again by the same squirrel.
It chittered cheerfully at her. Ma-ling frowned. "Go away," she said shooing it away with her hand; the tiny squirrel scampered up the same tree Trowa was in and sat next to him, while squeaking insults down at Ma-ling.
"It seems you have a friend," Ma-ling said unconsciously placing a hand on her hip.
"So do you," Trowa answered not opening his eyes.
Ma-ling frowned at his comment but looked down as she felt something near her foot. A chocolate colored rabbit sat between her feet rubbing his head against her foot. The Japanese woman stood there for a second, mesmerized that the rabbit was unafraid of her. The soldier inside yelled at her breaking the trance.
"Be gone creature," she yelled at the unmoving rabbit. It wiggled its nose at her making the soldier in her angry.
"Animals can see the good in people," Trowa said scratching the head of the squirrel that sat on his lap.
"What makes you think I'm good, maybe the rabbit smells the school on me." Ma-ling answered turning away from the boy in the tree.
"Maybe," Trowa said. "And maybe there's more to you than you think."
"You are as annoying as Duo, you know that. What are you doing here anyways?" she said over her shoulder.
"I'm on my break so I decided to check out the woods. I didn't expect to run into you or your fellow partner."
"Wing Zero is Heero's Gundam, not mine," Ma-ling said, her voice steady and controlled.
"Why did..." Trowa trailed off.
"You want to know why Heero took my Gundam instead of his," Ma-ling questioned turning her head away from the boy. Trowa didn't answer but his emerald green eyes encouraged her to go on.
"I don't know why," she answered quietly looking at the ground. "But I do know that I must continue on with my missions. Kyo- his death is just a part of war. It happens."
"But what about you."
"What about me," Ma-ling asked sharply turning around.
"Don't you feel anything," Trowa stated boldly.
"If you mean sadness that my brother is dead, fear that he left me alone, anger that I couldn't of prevented this. Then yes I felt something. But not any more. Quatre helped me realize that I am a soldier and a soldier does not have feelings."
"Ma-ling-," Trowa was cut off by a sharp crack above his head. Squirrels and birds took off in every direction. Ma-ling calmly slipped her gun back into her pocket and looked back up at the boy in the tree.
"I have said more then you needed to know. Now of course if you were my rival you would of already been eliminated."
Before anything more could be said between battle weary pilots a familiar electrical frequency emitted from Wing Zero's chest cavity. An incoming message, probably from Dr. J.
Ma-ling turned back to the slumbering giant and proceeded to climb up when her dress got in her way. Frowning in annoyance and disgust she gathered her dress length in one hand and tucked it up.
Paying no attention to Trowa who respectively looked away, Ma-ling easily hoped up onto the chest of the Gundam. "Open." she commanded sharply. Wing Zero's eye glowed and a soft rumbling sound could be heard.
"Heero Yuy is not here," Ma-ling said. "I'm your new authorized pilot. Now open up metallic beast."
With a hiss Wing Zero's cockpit door opened and Ma-ling hopped inside. Settling in the chair, the door closed and she was encased in darkness. Immediately the lights flickered on and the system booted up. The screen in front of her lit up and a sober looking man appeared. He frowned when he saw Ma-ling.
"Where is Heero Yuy?" he demanded.
"He's dead Dr. J. An unfortunate accident," Ma-ling replied. She wouldn't explain unless asked.
"Your Gundam?" Dr. J asked quietly after a moment of silence.
"Gone. Destroyed in battle," she answered looking slightly to the left off her.
"Ma-ling," Dr. J said bring the teen's eyes back to him. They were bleak and dull. They held no emotion to the fact that she told him that her brother was dead. It was as if she had never heard of the name Heero or that she ever had a brother.
"You are now in charge of Wing Zero. You will continue your missions as planned, do not stray from them."
"Understood."
"Yes sir."
Dr. J stroked his mustache with his clawed hand. "Stay in contact. You will be getting a mission briefing in the next week."
"Roger."
The screen went black and Ma-ling was left in silence. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.
'Good night Imoto.'
Good night Kyodai.
'Sleep, for we have a great day ahead of us.'
What are we doing?
'Tomorrow we met Gundam Zero and Zero One.'
Will we be able to use them?
'Hai. Good night Imoto.'
Good night Kyodai.
'Sleep, for we have a great battle ahead of us.'
She must have nodded off because she could have sworn she heard someone calling her name. She frowned and tilted her head up. Her eyes widened as she reached up and pulled down something that was tapped to the ceiling of her new Gundam's cab.
A photograph. An old one by the worn and creased edges. A picture of a man with blond hair cradling two babies. It only took a second for Ma-ling to realize that the man was Odin Lowe and the two babies he was holding were she and Heero. The twin's first teacher in the art of killing.
Odin had died when she and Heero were eight. Mission failure. The two teens had wandered the colony they were stuck on for a while before coming across Dr. J. They were taken in and trained to be Gundam pilots.
Odin taught them to be assassins and act on their emotions. Dr. J taught them to be peacekeepers and to have no emotions. 'What a way to screw up a kid's thinking.'
For some reason that struck Ma-ling's funny bone and she laughed quietly to herself. Her eerie laughter echoed through the tiny confinement of her Gundam's cab.
Her Gundam.
The words didn't seem to belong to her. Nothing belonged to her. Not even the photo she held in her hand. She forced herself to put it back, pressing on the taped edges.
Fire shot up and down her arm when she lifted it above her head. She muttered a string of foul Japanese words under her breath. She rubbed her shoulder to ease the burning pain. 'Why does this happen to me. Why can't I stand the pain.'
"Ma-ling."
'It's been long enough.'
"Ma-ling."
'It shouldn't hurt anymore.'
TBC...
Welcome to OMWOS's crazy question day. Once in a while she will have these. She will ask everyone one question and they will e-mail their answers to her e-mail addy. Everyone ready here goes. The question of the day is OMWOS is starting her career as a Vet tech. So she needs to get her A.S degree in Animal Science. One of the class she will be taking is Show's and Expo's. She has decided on steer as her animal. She will have to train it from birth, feed it, lean how to groom, break it so it's used to humans and Goddesses. In fact the animal will be her's for the whole semester and summer. So she's asking for help on a name. So she likes the names (origin) Solo (Gundam Manga) Hamburger Helper ^_^;; (TV commercial) Wataru (A wind named Amnesia) Toshi (dictionary) Hashiko (Television) So that's it. Have a happy time deciding. Thank you very much. OMWOS out
Disclaimer: Gods I wish I owned them but I don't. Warnings: AU, New Chara's, a tiny bit of Angst, maybe some OOC (you try writing with a cast of 6 plus supporting actors plus extra's and when it's been six months since you've seen a episode of G.W. and you're poor and have no job and no money to buy G.W. on video. Darn you college for sucking up what little money I have.) Rated: PG-13 for cursing and violence. Archive: If any one wants to, they can put my story up on their site. As long as you e-mail and tell me, so I can visit and check it out. Feedback: Yes please, with Duo on top of whip cream
CHAPTER 8
"Hey, what's up my friends," Rae called to the two men in front of her.
The men looked at each other, one of them spoke up. "Who are you?"
"I'm hurt, you don't remember me," Rae said putting a hand over her heart. She faked a choked sob. "We were best friends when we were little Billy."
"John," the man said.
"Yeah whatever. The boss wants me to take over for you guys."
"Are you sure? You're kind of young to take over Security."
"What so hard about watching a few monitors. I've had lots of practice watching T.V. Now are you going to piss me off and make me get Quinns or are you going to obey me like good little soldiers."
"Come on man," the other guy spoke up. "Let the kid take over. I need to take a pee break anyways. We can grab something to eat."
The man rubbed his hand across his chin. "All right," he finally decided. "We'll give you a chance. Don't screw up kid or your ass is grass."
"Yes sir," Rae gave a quick salute. 'Jerk,' she thought to herself. She watched the two men leave and she quickly shut the door of the Security room.
Rae plunked into the swivel chair and spun around once. "Don't screw up kid or your ass is grass," she imitated in a gruff voice. "Psh. Who does he think he is. Dork." Rae glanced at the monitors in front of her. "Lets see what do we have here. Looks like the Cook's doing a little more then cooking", she replied at the make out scene with the cook and his helper miss. Bunny. 'What a stupid name. Ew, I think I'll skip lunch.' She thought as the woman sat on the counter.
"What else have we got." she scanned the other monitors. "The commander playing chess. A training class, my class." Rae stopped, her brown eyes focused on the screen before her. She watched one man after another attack someone and end up on his or her back, stomach, and butt.
"Who can this deadly person be," Rae said out loud. "Move your fat head Riker. Ah lets see who we have here." She saw a patch of dark hair, then the persons face. Rae's mouth dropped open. "O'Brien! Huh, who would of thought? He's pretty good, he might be a problem. Guess I'll just have to eliminate him."
"On with my schedule," Rae said sitting up; she reached out and typed something into the control panel. "My, what do we have here? The Barge's entire schedule all by it's little lonesome self. Well don't worry Aunty Merciless is here."
Rae began to type relentlessly at the keyboard. 'Hm, looks like OZ has had some time on their hands to create an encrypted box around their files. Well that's no problem for me, Hacker Merciless.' Rae let out an evil laugh. She continued typing. Her fingers flew along the keys breaking through one block at a time.
'You'd think OZ would learn, tsk tsk. Their defense system needs major work, not to mention their security. Letting a little Hacker in here all by herself. While anything could happen, like an fire test in dock twelve.' Rae pressed a button; a faint alarm could be heard down the hallway.
'Or we could have a total lock down in the showers,' Rae reached over and pressed another key with a finger. She grinned smugly. 'Or even we could have a little glitch in the calendar and suddenly we have a day of leave.' Rae hacked into the schedule and quickly changed it. 'There, now I really have security patrol. You know I can get the files I need right now, if Dork and Stupid don't come back.'
Rae flipped her braid over her shoulder and glanced at the closed door. 'To Hack or not Hack, that is the question. To Hack'. Rae shifted in her seat and cracked her knuckles. Her fingers splayed across the keyboard she began the challenge of hacking into the center Mainframe of Barge.
To her dismay she didn't realize that she was being traced, by Quinns. He sat on deck, his chin propped up by his fists, a scowl shadowing his face. 'Who can be hacking Mainframe,' he pondered as the team around him traced the hacker.
"Will you hurry up, the hacker has already broken through the first wall of defenses," he shouted impatiently. Frustrated he stood up and began to pace the floor, growing agitated by the second. Just as he was about to pull out what little hair he had left one of the officers stood up with news.
"Sir, we have good news and bad news."
"Tell me," Quinns ordered sitting back down.
"The Hacker is on Barge sir. In fact we've pinpointed the deck they are on. That means we have a spy on board."
"What's the good news then," Quinns asked.
"That was the good news, sir. The bad news is the Hacker is Merciless."
"God dammit!" Quinns slammed his fist on the chair's arm. "We might have had a chance," he muttered to himself, he then looked back up at the men. "What the hell are you still doing here, find me Merciless. NOW!"
The statement jarred the men into action. They sprang forward, orders barked out. "You take the south entrance. You three grab your guns. The rest follow me." Soon an army of ten men were racing down the hallway, towards Rae.
"All right," Rae said to herself as she broke through the last defense line. She glanced at her watch, six minutes had ticked by. 'I've got to hurry.' She brought her attention back to the screen in front of her, missing the camera shot of men running towards the security room she was in.
'Just a couple of... uh oh.' Rae looked up as she sighed, trying to break through a block that popped up out of nowhere. The sixteen year old watched Oz soldiers running down a hall, with guns in their hands. 'That can't be good. Damn! They must of traced me.' Rae set to the task of backing out of her attack. She looked back up at the screens and realized she didn't have enough time to get out of the room.
"Open this door," an officer yelled banging on the door. "We have you surrounded."
The Russian teen stood up and braced for an attack. 'Way to go genius, how are you going to get yourself out of this one.' Her dark brown eyes scanned the room for a solution.
"Break down the door," the soldier yelled again. With one final shove the door gave way and the men spilled into the empty room. With a quick search they found nothing. "Spread out men, Merciless might still be here." The OZ soldiers split up and ran in different directions, leaving the room.
Two minutes ticked by and a soft screeching sound echoed through the security room. With a loud bang the air ventilation screen clanged to the floor. Rae's head appeared from the hole in the ceiling and looked around. She pulled her head back in and a second later her feet emerged followed by the rest of her body. Hanging in mid-air by one hand was not the most convenient position to be found in.
Rae twisted her body and stared ruefully into the dark blue eyes that glinted back at her. She cleared her throat. "You would not believe what just happened."
"Try me," the smooth yet harsh voice said.
Rae scratched her head with her free hand, and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. "Well, I was doing some repair work on the ventilator. I wasn't getting much air and in my opinion that's a bad thing. So I climbed up to see if there was anything stuck but as I did this asshole of a man, no offense, barged into the control room welding a very big gun."
Rae swung a little as she moved her free arm in motion to her words. "Since I was unarmed at the time, I decided it was best to stay put where I was, then act like a hero and get myself killed. He hacked into the center Mainframe of Barge and was looking for something. I couldn't quite see what it was."
"Well, to make a long story short, the man didn't have enough time to get whatever he was looking for and backed out. He grabbed his gun and took off, leaving me behind, unnoticed and unhurt." Rae finished, putting a hand on her hip. She stared innocently at the boy in front of her. 'Come on, buy the damn story, or else I'll have to kill you. And I don't like killing cute boys. '
"So what do say O'Brien, do you believe me," she said trying to act natural as she swung a little to see if there was anything in the room she could use as a weapon.
Suddenly Max was right below her and grabbing her around the waist. For a split second Rae froze and thought he had caught on and was going to bring her in.
"You better come down before someone gets the wrong idea," Max said, his hands still planted on Rae's hips.
Rae released her grip and tried not wince as she let the black haired boy gently put her down. Just days earlier she had been in a fight and kicked her opponent's ass, but not before he left her with a pretty bruise the size of a colony.
Unluckily Max saw her reaction and pulled away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"You didn't hurt me," Rae said squaring her shoulders. "No one hurts me."
Max stared at the small girl, his silent blue eyes piercing through her wall of boldness and lip. He nodded his head slightly and swiftly turned towards the door.
"Hey O'Brien." Max turned around at his given name. "Thanks." Rae said flipping her braid over her shoulder. The boy nodded again. "Say, do you want... to get some lunch or something. I know it's a little early, but the early soldier gets the food."
'Why not.' "Sure." he replied, forcing the faked happiness, hopping she wouldn't noticed.
Rae smiled her dazzling smile that made a real smile creep across Max's lips but vanished before it could totally form. "All right," she said. "Lets go. Oh and O'Brien, I wouldn't eat the soup. Trust me."
*
Ma-ling glanced behind her making sure she wasn't being followed and continued her trek through the wooded area. She felt eyes on her and she looked around. Finding nothing she pushed through a thick brush, scrapping her arm on a sharp twig that jutted out. She ignored the sharp burning pain as usual and preceded until she came upon the sleeping giant she was looking for.
There, she felt the eyes on her again. Ma-ling whirled around and whipped out her gun from her dress pocket, she was faced with a horrible and dreadful...squirrel. It sat on its hindquarters, grooming itself ignoring the girl with the shinny thing in her hand.
Ma-ling shook her head and sighed, slipping her gun back into her pocket.
"You know if I was an enemy, you would of already been dead," a soft voice said from above her.
Ma-ling looked up saw Trowa sitting on a tree limb ten feet above her. His one visible eye gleamed with mirth at her blank expression that she pasted on. "And I'm supposed to be impressed." she replied haughtily.
Trowa said nothing as he leaned against the truck of the tree and closed his eyes. Ma-ling arched an eyebrow but remained silent. She turned away from the nature boy and was faced again by the same squirrel.
It chittered cheerfully at her. Ma-ling frowned. "Go away," she said shooing it away with her hand; the tiny squirrel scampered up the same tree Trowa was in and sat next to him, while squeaking insults down at Ma-ling.
"It seems you have a friend," Ma-ling said unconsciously placing a hand on her hip.
"So do you," Trowa answered not opening his eyes.
Ma-ling frowned at his comment but looked down as she felt something near her foot. A chocolate colored rabbit sat between her feet rubbing his head against her foot. The Japanese woman stood there for a second, mesmerized that the rabbit was unafraid of her. The soldier inside yelled at her breaking the trance.
"Be gone creature," she yelled at the unmoving rabbit. It wiggled its nose at her making the soldier in her angry.
"Animals can see the good in people," Trowa said scratching the head of the squirrel that sat on his lap.
"What makes you think I'm good, maybe the rabbit smells the school on me." Ma-ling answered turning away from the boy in the tree.
"Maybe," Trowa said. "And maybe there's more to you than you think."
"You are as annoying as Duo, you know that. What are you doing here anyways?" she said over her shoulder.
"I'm on my break so I decided to check out the woods. I didn't expect to run into you or your fellow partner."
"Wing Zero is Heero's Gundam, not mine," Ma-ling said, her voice steady and controlled.
"Why did..." Trowa trailed off.
"You want to know why Heero took my Gundam instead of his," Ma-ling questioned turning her head away from the boy. Trowa didn't answer but his emerald green eyes encouraged her to go on.
"I don't know why," she answered quietly looking at the ground. "But I do know that I must continue on with my missions. Kyo- his death is just a part of war. It happens."
"But what about you."
"What about me," Ma-ling asked sharply turning around.
"Don't you feel anything," Trowa stated boldly.
"If you mean sadness that my brother is dead, fear that he left me alone, anger that I couldn't of prevented this. Then yes I felt something. But not any more. Quatre helped me realize that I am a soldier and a soldier does not have feelings."
"Ma-ling-," Trowa was cut off by a sharp crack above his head. Squirrels and birds took off in every direction. Ma-ling calmly slipped her gun back into her pocket and looked back up at the boy in the tree.
"I have said more then you needed to know. Now of course if you were my rival you would of already been eliminated."
Before anything more could be said between battle weary pilots a familiar electrical frequency emitted from Wing Zero's chest cavity. An incoming message, probably from Dr. J.
Ma-ling turned back to the slumbering giant and proceeded to climb up when her dress got in her way. Frowning in annoyance and disgust she gathered her dress length in one hand and tucked it up.
Paying no attention to Trowa who respectively looked away, Ma-ling easily hoped up onto the chest of the Gundam. "Open." she commanded sharply. Wing Zero's eye glowed and a soft rumbling sound could be heard.
"Heero Yuy is not here," Ma-ling said. "I'm your new authorized pilot. Now open up metallic beast."
With a hiss Wing Zero's cockpit door opened and Ma-ling hopped inside. Settling in the chair, the door closed and she was encased in darkness. Immediately the lights flickered on and the system booted up. The screen in front of her lit up and a sober looking man appeared. He frowned when he saw Ma-ling.
"Where is Heero Yuy?" he demanded.
"He's dead Dr. J. An unfortunate accident," Ma-ling replied. She wouldn't explain unless asked.
"Your Gundam?" Dr. J asked quietly after a moment of silence.
"Gone. Destroyed in battle," she answered looking slightly to the left off her.
"Ma-ling," Dr. J said bring the teen's eyes back to him. They were bleak and dull. They held no emotion to the fact that she told him that her brother was dead. It was as if she had never heard of the name Heero or that she ever had a brother.
"You are now in charge of Wing Zero. You will continue your missions as planned, do not stray from them."
"Understood."
"Yes sir."
Dr. J stroked his mustache with his clawed hand. "Stay in contact. You will be getting a mission briefing in the next week."
"Roger."
The screen went black and Ma-ling was left in silence. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.
'Good night Imoto.'
Good night Kyodai.
'Sleep, for we have a great day ahead of us.'
What are we doing?
'Tomorrow we met Gundam Zero and Zero One.'
Will we be able to use them?
'Hai. Good night Imoto.'
Good night Kyodai.
'Sleep, for we have a great battle ahead of us.'
She must have nodded off because she could have sworn she heard someone calling her name. She frowned and tilted her head up. Her eyes widened as she reached up and pulled down something that was tapped to the ceiling of her new Gundam's cab.
A photograph. An old one by the worn and creased edges. A picture of a man with blond hair cradling two babies. It only took a second for Ma-ling to realize that the man was Odin Lowe and the two babies he was holding were she and Heero. The twin's first teacher in the art of killing.
Odin had died when she and Heero were eight. Mission failure. The two teens had wandered the colony they were stuck on for a while before coming across Dr. J. They were taken in and trained to be Gundam pilots.
Odin taught them to be assassins and act on their emotions. Dr. J taught them to be peacekeepers and to have no emotions. 'What a way to screw up a kid's thinking.'
For some reason that struck Ma-ling's funny bone and she laughed quietly to herself. Her eerie laughter echoed through the tiny confinement of her Gundam's cab.
Her Gundam.
The words didn't seem to belong to her. Nothing belonged to her. Not even the photo she held in her hand. She forced herself to put it back, pressing on the taped edges.
Fire shot up and down her arm when she lifted it above her head. She muttered a string of foul Japanese words under her breath. She rubbed her shoulder to ease the burning pain. 'Why does this happen to me. Why can't I stand the pain.'
"Ma-ling."
'It's been long enough.'
"Ma-ling."
'It shouldn't hurt anymore.'
TBC...