A/N: I'm so sorry but I have had a very busy week and, unfortunately, I won't be able to finish this before Xmas as I hoped. Tomorrow, we're leaving Milan to go to Northern Ireland to spend the holidays with my in-laws, so this means no computer for a while…I will finish this as soon as I come back and that is a promise. Anyway, I managed to finish one more chapter so, there you go…

Chapter Sixteen

They just stared at the machines hesitating to believe what their brain was telling them. It was really strange, after all these years, to stand in front of the Gundams Wing Zero, Death scythe, Heavy Arms, Sandrock and Altron.

"That…those…I…" stuttered Duo being the first to find his voice.

"Yes…they are Gundams…our Gundams…" replied Quatre trying to avoid looking at anyone directly in their eyes.

"But…they…were…I mean…we…" continued Duo not quite recovered from the shock.

"Quatre…we destroyed them…how did you…?" asked Wufei finishing Duo's question.

"I know…I rebuilt them after what happened in Mars thinking we may have needed them again in the future. I know that what I've done is illegal and I'm prepared to pay the price of my actions but, I honestly hoped that time would prove me wrong but, unfortunately, what has just happened…well, I think we will need every possible resource. Especially if we are going to face mobile dolls made of gundanium…" explained Quatre trying to justify his actions.

"Well…Quatre…I can't say I'm happy to see these things again, but…you're right…we will need them…" admitted Sally still shocked.

"Are they armed?" asked Heero.

"Yes…I made some adjustments to them…I've also enhanced some of the standard features…The blueprints that Instructor H left me were very helpful…" replied Quatre.

"Did you build them yourself?" asked Duo still incredulous.

"Of course not…I had some help…" said Quatre obviously not wanting to add more.

"You can tell them who helped you…" said a very recognizable voice coming out of Heavy Arms' cockpit.

"Trowa!!" exclaimed Duo thinking that the surprises today had not end.

"Trowa…I didn't want you to get involved…" said Quatre.

"Quatre, by helping you, I accepted every risk…" said Trowa.

"When did you…" started asking Sally.

"I came here as soon as Quatre heard about the news. He called me yesterday and I've been preparing all Gundams so they could be ready since I got here…just in case we needed them…" explained Trowa.

"Well…what are we waiting for?" asked Heero getting inpatient.

Some time later, the six men together with Sally placed all five Gundams in a huge carrier, originally used to transport very large quantities of minerals, then they boarded the shipper and, after the regular checks, they took off.

"What's wrong with Wufei?" asked Duo, just after take off, seeing the Chinese man's angry face.

"He didn't want me to come…" replied Sally, and then added in a louder tone of voice so her husband would hear her, "he thinks it's too dangerous!".

"Woman…you got your way, just let me be, alright?" replied Wufei not sounding quite as angry as he wanting to appear.

"Duo, let me tell you a secret, Wufei's anger towards me tends to be very short lived…" said Sally talking in a very low voice making Duo smile.

His smile disappeared when he saw Heero and Milliardo. Both men were incredibly tense. Duo found kind of funny how similar they were. Even though they had cordially hated each other ever since they met all those years ago, they almost had the same kind of personality. Cold and distant, yet they had both lost their fight to keep the feelings outside their hearts. And, in doing so, they had showed everyone how much love they could give to the right person.

Milliardo, had finally surrendered to Lucrezia and now, with little Zach were an enviable happy family. Heero, with much effort from Relena's side, had become a caring husband and, up to a few days ago, with the imminent arrival of their baby, their union was only getting stronger. Duo felt almost as angry as Heero himself…it was as though as destiny itself didn't want Heero to be happy.

Very shortly, Trowa, that was piloting the shipper, told them they had almost arrived. As in to make his point clear, Quatre announced that the welcome committee was already coming out the shuttle.

Heero not thinking twice, got up his seat and headed off to the back of the carrier.

"Hey! Heero…we have not decided who's going out yet…" started saying Duo following the Japanese pilot but stopped immediately when Heero turned around and, grabbing Duo's collar said in a dangerously low tone of voice:

"That is my wife and our baby out there…I don't think we have to decide anything…I'm going" .

With this, he released Duo, turned around and started walking again.

"Hey…man, I know how much you enjoy beating me up but…oh…it's useless" Duo said seeing that Heero was not listening, then turning around to face the others, said "Guys, here me and Mr Psycho are going out…".

"Ok…if we see you need help we'll come out as well…" said Quatre.

"I don't think we will need help…with Heero in this condition, it will be a surprise if he does not blow the entire satellite up…" replied Duo before disappearing through the hutch.

"What am I supposed to do? Just wait here? My sister is…" said Milliardo getting frustrated.

"We should not show all our cards just yet…It will be better to see what their true potential is before displaying ours…" interrupted Trowa sensibly.

Milliardo did not even reply. He was upset because Heero was out there and he did not even have a Gundam to pilot.

The four people left in the shipper saw the two Gundams starting to fight some of the mobile dolls.

"These suckers are resistant, aren't they?" asked Duo seeing that, although they looked very much like the old Aries suits, it took three times as much effort to damage them. They were programmed much better. Their movement was almost as accurate as a piloted mobile suit would be. Duo also had to admit that he had kind of lost his touch…it had been a long time since he had piloted his beloved Death Scythe.

Taking a few seconds the attention off the mobile dolls he was fighting, he saw Heero's moves. It looked as though as he had never stopped piloting his Zero.

Heero was so tense he had difficulties to keep breathing normally. His feelings while boarding Wing Zero had been mixed. A part of him had felt like coming back home after a long time away. Another one, the most human one, felt sad he had to be back there to fight again.

After the last war had finished, he had been so sick of fighting he had promised he would not kill anyone ever again. He just didn't have to. Now, though, he had a very good reason to do so, yet again, he also had two very good reasons not to.

It was the story of his life. It looked like he always had to fight conflicting emotions. It was hard living that way. Odin had told him to live according his emotions but, he had not told him how to choose between two opposed ones.

The mobile dolls kept increasing their number. Heero found it as difficult as the braided man to damage them, let alone destroy them. He kept getting frustrated. It just took too long. Heero knew that there was no time to waste. For what it was worth, Relena, after all the stress she and the baby had been put through, could had actually given birth…Heero got furious thinking of that possibility so, with this added fury, he started hitting the mobile dolls even harder.

Quatre had been truthful, the weapons of Death Scythe were a lot more powerful. The only problem is that, even with this improvement, Quatre could have not foreseen what they were facing now.

Duo had to keep an eye on everything that moved around him. His scythe had been trying to slice every single mobile doll. He had a hard time trying to even scratch them when, half by coincidence, half on purpose, he discovered that if he hit them long enough with the beam just underneath them, where the machine's 'arms' connected to its 'body', he damaged them very severely.

"Heero, aim your sabre underneath them. If you keep it there for a few seconds, you will destroy them…" Duo said informing his partner about his discovery.

"Roger that" replied Heero.

Now that they had found their weak point, it became much easier to get rid of them. This way, the shipper had less trouble getting closer to the satellite.

Seeing that Trowa had individuated a place to land the huge carrier, Duo went there to get rid of all mobile dolls around the area.

Duo was getting tired. He was definitely not used to this anymore…Of course, his tiredness just became yet another incentive to finish off the job sooner.

Heero had six mobile dolls surrounding his Gundam. He tried to get rid of the one on his back. It was dangerous, if the thing grabbed the Gundam from there, it would immobilise it. With one single move, he destroyed two of them.

Then, all the sudden, the mobile dolls stopped fighting. An image appeared in front of him. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Hello Heero…I see you've found my little secret refuge…".

"YOU'RE DEAD!!" shouted Heero.

"No…that's what you wish…but I'm alive and now…thanks to your wife's cooperation, I will be able to finish my job…I have to say…she's still as pretty as I remembered…".

"What do you want from her?" asked Heero getting so furious he felt like his heart was pumping all the blood to his head and it would explode in a matter of seconds.

"I don't want anything from her…I just want the baby…she's useless to me…but your baby…it's got your genes and that is what I need…Dr J failed before because I believe the subject was too old. With a newborn baby, the whole process will be more effective. I will create an entire army of Perfect Soldiers…".

Heero just did not know what to say. It had been a huge shock to see that bastard alive. Trowa had told him that he had shot him himself. And now, his worst nightmare, the craziest person on ESUN there, telling him he wanted their baby to make a Perfect Soldier out of it.

Heero promised to himself that, this time, he would kill Dr Pieter van der Veert himself.

END OF CHAPTER SIXTEEN