17: The Locus of victory and Defeat
The sounds of Wing Gundam recharging and activating itself was the first thing that reached Duo's ears as he began to come around from unconsciousness. His eyes opened to their usual state but there was a shade of bewilderment reflecting them, he flexed his fingers about checking his motor skills as he twisted around in the cockpit. Once he had confirmed that his body was in perfect working order he then realized that the cockpit was no longer a dark space but was illuminated by the evening sky of the world outside of the Gundam that appeared to be in perfect working order. However, Duo knew that without both arms and wings he would have a serious disadvantage against Rei's son. Sighing Duo gripped the joystick and attempted to move.
Wing Gundam's head jerked slightly upward as he rose from its' kneeling position, swaying back and forth from time to time. Duo was beginning to feel a huge development of motion sickness coming onto him as he maneuvered Wing Gundam forward. "Okay," He said to himself. "All I've gotta do is stop Jin, but my question is how? Gundam's are virtually impossible to destroy without a beam cannon, and I don't have one on me." Duo sighed in semi-defeat as he continued to move forward at a sluggish pace that annoyed him greatly.
Wing Gundam's balance control was off making controlling the mobile suit's body weight and mass a unsimple task to be dealt with, Duo silently prayed that someone above would grant him a Miracle if he was going to do battle with a much more mobile Wing Zero. Removing one hand from the controls, Duo reached and flicked three witches turning on heat-vision and auto target incase he needed it. Across from his left, the American spotted W.G.'s beam cannon, Duo directed the mobile suit over to the cannon then bent down over it and picked it off of the ground gripping it firmly in the mobile's hand. "Right, now to get down to business," He declared. Wing Gundam's calf and underfoot boosters were activated, the mobile suit rose from the ground into the air and changed into its bird mode. Duo shifted his eyes toward the blinking screen before and red the warning; Flight mode, down to 75%, flight capability is limited due to external and internal damage. The braided-shinigami smirked at the warning as he blasted forward toward the control tower. "That's fine with me, just as long as I can fly forward," He laughed.
Catherine made her way through the virtually empty halls of the Preventer's HQ hugging her arms. She peered through each window that she could see through keep herself busy in the absence of Trowa and his friends, brushing her loose hair behind her ear she stopped in front of door to the sleeping quarters. "This is convenient," Catherine sighed. The 18-year-old gripped the door knob and slowly opened the door then stepped into the dim track lighted room, inside she found Noin slumped over the couch with her arm draped over her eyes. Quietly, Catherine shut the door behind her before making her way toward the lounge chair.
The circus performer sat down on the lounge chair then laid against it, slowly she closed her eyes awaiting sleep to claim her until the sound of frustrated groans assaulted her ears. Catherine shot up from her sleeping position and turned her head toward the frowning Noin. "Miss Noin, are you all right?" She asked turning around to face the purple haired woman. Noin turned toward the girl and nodded weakly resting a hand on her chest with a huff.
Catherine sensed there was something Noin wasn't telling her, but she didn't want to press the issue since she didn't known Lucreiza Noin all that well so she laid her head onto the lounge again and prepared to close her eyes when Noin spoke barely above a whisper. "He's so secretive, he never tells me anything," Noin blinked tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Catherine looked up from her hands at Noin, knowing she knew was referring to the long haired blonde that stood taller than probably anyone in the entire building (excluding Une and Sally).
Not wanting to say anything Catherine closed her eyes and continued to listen to Noin. "I know he's worried Relena, his attitude explains that, but why won't he talk to me?" The 18-year-old could Noin's quiet sobs followed by her rising off of the couch sniffling Catherine listened to Noin walk past her. "Thanks for listening, Catherine," Noin sniffled exiting the room. Catherine was left alone inside the room in a state of shock and awe.
Noin whipped her eyes and runny nose dry to hide any indications that she was crying or upset, she continued down the hall walking off all of her bothers and worries when she heard brisk footfalls coming from behind her. A smile spread across her face she turned around just as the small figure came around the corner with a picture her hand and a smile on her face. "Miss Noin!" The 9-year-old red-oranged haired girl cried happily. Noin smiled kneeling down on her knee with her arms wide open, the girl jumped onto Noin's arms and wrapped her arms around her neck.
"My gosh you getting heavy, Mariemaia!" Noin grunted as she rose to feet. Mariemaia giggled at her remark as Noin traveled down the hall toward Sally's office. "Did you come down to see your Mom?" Lucreiza asked curiously. Mariemaia shook her head with a yawn. "No, I came to see the boy I heard about from Eriol," Mariemaia replied politely showing Noin a picture of Jin. Noin's eyes sparkled with surprised when she heard that, Mariemaia came down from her school to see Jin, their supposed enemy. "Is he here?" She asked. Noin pulled herself out her thoughts in time to hear Mariemaia's question. "No, at the moment, he tagged along with Wufei on a mission," Noin replied. Mariemaia let out a silent 'oh' and dropped the subject.
Lucreiza stopped in front of Sally's door and put Mariemaia down on the floor. "Now you say hello to Sally, I'm gonna tell your Mom that you here, okay?" The 20-year-old said. Mariemaia shook her head and went around Noin. "I'll go see her since the new boy isn't here, you go and talk to my Mom," The pale-blue eyed girl said with a smirk. Noin stared at her for a moment before obliging to her suggestion or rather order. Mariemaia nodded before she took down the hall, her backpack bounced against her back as she rounded the corner. Noin sighed as she entered Sally's office, the Chinese woman looked up from her papers at Noin then smiled tiredly at her. "What's up?" Sally asked leaning back in her chair. Noin shook her head flopping down onto the chair beside Sally's desk. "Mariemaia's here," Lucreiza announced.
Sally looked down at her paper double checking her work before looking back up Noin. "So why the long face?" The 20-year-old asked. Lucreiza ran a hand through her hair taking a deep intake of air. "She wanted to see that boy named Jin," Noin explained. Sally's amused face fell and a cofused/angry face replaced it. "How does Mariemaia know that there's a boy named Jin here?" Sally proclaimed rising from her chair. Noin gave her look as if saying 'you know who told her.' Sally sighed in frustration falling back in her chair with her hand against her forehead. "Eriol, that blundering idiot," She grumbled. Noin stared at the oil stain on the rug shaking her head. Blundering idiot didn't even describe what Eriol was half of time when he medicated drugs wheeling around in a wheelchair flirting with his girlfriend. "Luckily, Jin's not even here," Noin mumbled. Sally just grunted in agreement.
When Heero wakened from his unconscious state, the first thing he remembered was the stairs giving way underneath him from the intense earthquake-like rumbling that befell the building and falling through crumbling stairs, and buried under the rubble. Now his head hurting like hell, that was all he could think of because the pain was obscuring everything else inside of his mind. Heero cracked open one eye as the sounds of whispers reached his ear, it was blurry at first blotches of sun and various objects along with figures he couldn't put a face to, he lifted his hand up in front of his face and it took seemed to have a solidless shape about it. Opening both eyes things didn't look any better than they had with one eye.
His lips felt swollen and his body felt like it had went through a compact machine, he could barely keep in touch with his consciousness. He parted his mouth to speak, but all that came out was an undesired moan of pain caused by the raising of his arm. As his vision began to clear up, Heero noticed his head was lying on someone's lap. He looked up at the honey-blonde woman looking over him obviously examining his condition and reached up to touch her hair.
"Are you all right Heero?" The Japanese Preventer recognized the voice as Trowa's. He nodded weakly in response he tried to speak a sentence, but all that came out was a slurred one. "Whafs, wrong wif meaf? Whe can't I see fraight?" Heero could feel the confusion around him, he kept quiet and awaited answers to his questions. "I think he wants to know why he can't "see straight" and "what's wrong with him,"" Relena translated his jumbled words perfectly. Heero nodded. Quatre looked to Wufei, Wufei stared at the bottle in Trowa's grasp and Trowa had nowhere to look but the ceiling. Sighing, Trowa decided unwillingly to tell Heero that he had drugged him to ease the pain if he ever awakened.
"I sort of drugged you, so you couldn't feel any pain," He said sheepishly. Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously as he fought to set himself up on elbows, Relena moved to "gently" force him back down on her lap but Trowa shook his head at the advancement. Relena recoiled and watched Heero pull himself up off of the ground on shaky legs and lousy vision his arms hung almost lifeless at his sides and he wondered how much of that drug did Trowa actually give him. "You've been out over half-an-hour, so the drug should were off in thirty minutes so rest until then," Trowa suggested. "We can't go anywhere until we have some transportation to get you and Dorothy out of here." Heero didn't have time to nod to his friend's suggestion, the effects of the drugs overcame his senses and he fell backward into unconscious.
Relena jumped off her feet and caught him in her arms, her legs buckled under his weight, she fell to her knees with the motionless Preventer in her arms. "Will he be all right?" Quatre asked, concerned. Wufei nodded as he dabbed at the cut across Dorothy's leg with disinfectant. "He'll be fine once he's taken care of, until then he just needs to rest," The Chinese teenager answered. Trowa sighed resting against the wall, he slid down to the floor and pulled on leg up against his chest. "Does anyone know where, Duo is?" He mumbled. A unison of no's echoed through the confined area. Trowa sighed resting his head against the wall.
Phareil came out of base navigating blindly out of the smoky hallways and sections of the mobile suit hangar and out in the open where she found many slain men and shards and body parts of mobile suits her rebel army had rebuilt around her. Phareil's eyes widened in horror at the massacre of half her army and number of mobile suits around her, she fell to her knees knowing her plans had failed in the worst way possible. But she would not her hard work go to waste, because of five former preventers, two meddlesome girls, and whoever stole her Wing Zero and Wing Gundam. Pulling out from her shirt, Phareil revealed a manual detonator sure to trigger the missiles stationed below the base she stood upon, getting rid of all of her problems in one fell swoop.
She smirked and pressed the button, 60:00---70:59 appeared onto the small screen below the button letting her know how much time there was left until detonation of the entire Corsica base and everyone along with it. Placing the device back into her shirt, Phareil made her way across the battle torn area with a sense of accomplishment welling in her heart and spirit until the thundering sound of a mobile suit approaching her from the right caught her attention, she turned and what she saw stopped her breath in her throat. Wing Zero stomped toward her with the buster rifle in hand looking more demonic than she had ever seen before, wasting no time Phareil dashed across base grounds in hopes to out run Wing Zero, she could still here it coming after her while taking its time.
Her heart thumped wildly in her chest feeling as though were about to burst right in her chest, her feet pushed hard against the concrete ground throwing her farther and farther out of hands reach of the Gundam that continued to follow her. The platinum blonde was coming up on a large area of bushes and trees that separated the base from the woodlands farther outward that lead to a road back to the city. Hoping the pilot would not see her, Phareil made a mad dash across the last section of concrete and onto dirt then leapt into the bushes for cover. She backed into the darkest corner of the bushes as much as she could hoping it would provide enough cover to hide her from Wing Zero's camera.
Above the bushes on a higher part of the hill surrounded by bushes and trees, Hilde sat in the jeep fiddling with the radio underneath the dashboard trying to rid herself of the boredom that befell her after Heero left. However, just as she was about to settle herself into the drivers seat of the jeep and take a nap, the thunderous footsteps of Wing Zero rocked her out of the half-sleep state she was in. Jumping out of the jeep, Hilde ran to the front of the car to see what was going on. To her surprise, she found herself staring at a Gundam, jumping off of the hill she landed right next Phareil who screamed in surprise causing a chain reaction. Hilde screamed jumping away from Phareil catching the attention of Wing Zero's pilot. In a mere second Wing Zero's buster rifle hovered right over Phareil's position. Hilde froze in her place in fear of the woman's life no matter how rotten she was to her while Hilde was in her captivity.
Stepping out into the open, Hilde looked up at the damaged face of the mobile suit with a scowl. "Hey, whoever you are in there, withdraw your weapon at once!" Hilde commanded. Wing Zero did as she said, but not because she had said it. Jin stared down into the aquamarine eyes of Schbeiker and smirked, he remembered seeing her in a picture with Duo. She was wearing a cardigan sweater overtop of a sky blue spaghetti strap shirt, a red plaid ankle length skirt, clogs, sparkling bracelets, and star earrings. Duo wore a pair sunglasses along with faded gray jeans, a black unbuttoned dress shirt he wore overtop a "Route 666" T-shirt and thick hiking boots. Jin laughed bitterly at the thought of them as a couple, it reminded him of his parents. But seeing Hilde in person was entirely different view point, she looked like a plain pair of shorts you don't wear after they shrink in the dry cleaners, she wasn't all that great looking to him.
Which made him question Duo's taste in women. "I have no business with you lady, get out of my way if you don't wanna get killed," Jin said bluntly. Hilde stared up at him with a scowl, it wasn't any of the gundam pilots, instead it sounded more like a little boy than a full grown man. Stepping forward once again, Hilde spoke up; "You think you don't have any business with me, but when you involve people like her over there, I can't just sit back idly and watch you kill them. I'm not that kind of person!" She informed him. Jin sneered at the her headstrong and stubborn personality, aiming the buster rifle in front of Hilde this time, he decided he would take them out with half power and be done with it. "As you wish. Prepare to die with your friend," Jin announced. He watched Hilde's scowl evaporate into that of a frightened face he loved to see on his enemies.
Outside Hilde watched the buster rifle come to life, as small strands of light gathered inside the weapon indicating that it was powering up. She clamped her eyes shut and awaited her horrible end to come silently hoping someone would come to her rescue. Jin smirked at the look on her face as he slowly removed his finger from the trigger on the controls. The buster rifle's barrel was now glowing with energy to destroy half city block and Jin prepared to fire when the alert system activated. "Stop right where you are Jin, and step away from Hilde," Came a voice. Jin looked up at the right screen and zoomed in on the oncoming object, Wing Gundam transforming into mobile suit form. "Heh, he doesn't know when to quit," He said in an almost annoyed tone of voice. Turning around he aimed the buster rifle on Wing Gundam and fired on its undamaged wing.
Duo dodged the blast with perfect accuracy as Wing Gundam landed on the ground in a crouched position. Hilde turned toward the damaged Wing Gundam and knew Duo was inside, a smile spread across her face and her heart fluttered in her chest as she concealed a cry of joy behind her mouth. Phareil stared at her strangely and shook her head happy she was still alive. Wing Gundam stood up just a few feet of Wing Zero and Duo wondered how in the world he would manage with one arm on his mobile suit. "Listen up Jin, I don't wanna fight you. But I will because someone you know wants me to," Duo explained briefly.
Jin scowled at the American on his screen and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Someone I know wants you to?" Jin repeated. Duo nodded raising his beam cannon. Yeah right, besides him, his gang of weirdoes, and Tomeki, the only person that would want him to stop me would be my parents, and they're dead, Jin thought. Just then an image of his mother and father flashed past his eyes. The hallucination sent him over the edge of sanity, he gritted his teeth at the sheer thought that Duo meant that one of his parents had told Duo to stop him. The American preventer would eat his words, if the last thing Jin would do. Activating the Vulcan cannon's on Wing Gundam's shoulders, he fired on Wing Gundam who sluggishly dodged out of the line of fire. Jin then began to fire on Wing Gundam with the buster rifle, Duo did his best to dodge the rapid fire blasts from the buster rifle, Jin's piloting skills were pushing him to the Max he learned to dodge the eleven year old's blasts more efficiently but not as well as he would like.
Jin aimed for Wing Gundam's leg and fired at the buster rifle's half power. Duo prepared to dodge it but, the joystick controls frozen in their place, he tired with all his might to get to move but to avail. The blast fired right through Wing Gundam's knee disabling the function of the lower part of its leg. Wng Gundam fell to its knees unable to stand correctly, Duo cusred a million swears through his teeth as he tried to stand back up again. Jin laughed triumphantly as he began to walk toward the disabled Wing Gundam aiming his buster rifle straight at the Emerald circular object in the enter of Wing Gundam's chest. Duo tried with all his might to get the Gundam to stand, but it wouldn't budge an inch. He had to think of something quick before he blown to smithereens.
"Stay back Jin, or I'll self-dentonate!" Duo warned as he searched around with his eyes for something that said "self-detonation." Through the communicator he could here Jin laughing aloud and Duo wanted to know what was so funny. "There are no sel-detonation devices installed in these Mobile suits, baka. So you can forget that idea," Jin proclaimed. Duo thought for a moment, maybe there wasn't a self-dentonation devices inside the suit, but someone must've had some fail-safe installed into this machine incase it fell into the wrong hands. Reaching down past the control panel, Duo felt underneath the dashboard and pulled out a mass of multicolored wires and began yanking them out of their respective sockets and began to wire them together in awkward ways hoping it would trigger some sort of explosion within Wing Gundam. Duo figured he might as well go out with a bang if he was unable to at least disarm Jin in some way when he remembered the pendant that Rei had given him! Digging into his pants pockets, he searched franticly for the pendant hanging on a blue chain while Jin just watched him shaking his head as he closed the distance between them and aimed straigh for Wing Gundam's chest. He powered up the buster rifle to to half of its full power.
Duo continued to search for the pendant in his all his preventer's jacket pockets when he felt something pulsating against his chest, digging into his shirt, he found his copper shaded cross and the pendant Rei had given him. Acting quickly, he pulled the pendant from over his head and shoved it in front of the screen hoping Jin would recongize it after eleven years of it missing in his life. To Duo's surprise, Jin had noticed the pendant. The young boy's onyx blue eyes were as wide as saucers and Duo swore he heard Jin blurt the words "Okassan's pendant!" But to the American preventer's dismay, Jin unconsciously removed his finger from the trigger on the control and fired the buster rifle beam on Wing Gundam. The blast engufled Wing Gundam's entire being and began to eat away at it's armor, Duo was thrown back against his seat from the impact of the blast, he was going to die and there was nothing he could about it. Throwning his arms up in his face, Duo fearfully awaited painful oblivion to claim his life.
Jin was in complete and utter shock at what he had just did, he watched with tears in his eyes he destroyed Wing Gundam along with his mother's pendant. "Oh God, what have done!!!!" He cried in disbelief. His hand shook for unknown reasons, his heart rate increased and he could feel the sheer pressure of the consequences to his actions weighing down on him and in one breathless motion he screamed his heart out continuously banging his fists against the control pannel. On the other side of the base, Hilde watched nearly destroyed Wing Gundam fall to the ground taking with it Duo's life. Her knees buckled under her and she fell to the ground.
She felt as though her heart had been ripped out of her chest, there was not a trace of feeling in her body, Hilde's aquamarine eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backward onto the ground unconscious. Phareil realized that Hilde had fainted, remembering that her sister and Hilde's so-called friends were inside the base still and that there was 30 mintues and 59 seconds left to escape from the building before it exploded. Climbing to her feet she ran past Hilde and climbed up the hill to the jeep, she jumped over the bushes and dashed over to the jeep leaping into the passengers seat. Grabbing the radio, she channeled in on the Corsica base frequency before she spoke. "Attention everyone, you are presently in a danger zone, I say this because I have activated the self-detonation missiles below the base. They will explode in precisely 20 minutes and 56 seconds. I reapeat They will explode in percisely 20 minutes and 55 seconds. I hope you all the best in your escape," With that Phareil shut the radio off and jumped out of the jeep. Sliding down the hill she made her way toward Hilde, she had to at least get her out of here before the base exploded.
Wing Zero dropped the buster rifle and bent down over Wing Gundam; there wasn't much left of the mobile suit; Jin could clearly see all of the unfried circuits and mechanical systems that were protected by the armor that was now gone. Using it's good hand Wing Zero ripped the hatch of the pilots cockpit open and reached in to grab the lifeless body of Duo Maxwell. Jin yanked Duo out of the confinement of the seatbelt and grasped him in Wing Zero's hand. Jin stared at Duo for a good while; the braided American's hair was in a shambles, strands of his chestnut brown hair was sticking out in every which direction, dried blood ran down from half of his face ot his neck, his eye were open but they were completely void of life, they appeared dull and almost colorless. The thing had hurt Jin the most was that Duo still had the pendant cluched in his hand. Whipping his face with the back of his hand, Jin activated Wing Zero's boosters and took to the sky.
Inside the base, thousands of rebels were rushing through the doors of the base taking off in Jeeps or whatever vechical they would find (excluding the mobile suits) in hopes to escape the blast radius of the explosion despite they had no idea what it was.
Trowa, Wufei, Quatre, a conscious Heero, Relena and a unconscious Dorothy (who was carried by Quatre) all rushed through the corridors toward the mobile suit hangar where they hoped to find some sort of transportation. Heero was in the front while Trowa stayed in the rear, everyone else was in the midddle. "Where are we gonna find an exit?! This hallway seems endless," Quatre pointed out the obvious. "Quit your griping Winner, and keep running," Wufei snapped. Heero ignored them both and dashed through an exit that, surprisingly led them not into a mobile suit hangar but into some sort of garage that had what they needed; transportation. "This'll do us good as any Jeep," Heero said.
They all followed him toward the Mercedes Benz, Heero grabbed the handle on the door opening it. He breathed a sigh of relief at the simple fact that it was open and that it had keys in the ignition. Trowa jumped into the passengers seat in the front, while Quatre, Wufei, Relena and Dorothy had to squeeze into the back. Locking the doors Heero turned the car on and put in reverse, everyone watched with panic in their hearts as he backed up all the way against the wall behind them. "What do you plan on doing, Heero?" Relena asked. Taking it out of revese Heero replied; "I'm making us a front door. Hang on and buckle up."
Everyone did as he said, Heero pressed his down onto the gas and the car bolted forward giving them all a bit of a scare. The Benz crashed righ through the giarage door out into the open, Relena held onto her seatbelt as Heero sped across the base making stomach lurching turns as he raced toward the exit of the base which was through forest. As the car lurched up onto the bushes and up the semi-steep hill Heero began to wonder where Duo, Jin, and Hilde were, he glanced back for a moment catching sight of a demolished mobile suit on the ground he knew as Wing Gundam or what was left of it. Turning his head back to the dirt road and trees ahead of him, he slowly began to lose hope in Duo being alive.
Trowa watched the trees pass them as they tore through the wood land, he propped his elbow up on the arm rest and watched the scenery pass them by in blur. "I hope, Duo and Hilde are alright," Trowa whispered to himself. Heero glanced in his direction just as the car blasted out of the wood land and onto the winding road in front of them. Behind them was a loud explosion that sent a huge gust of hot air in their direction sending the car forward much faster than Heero would have liked it to go. As he rounded a corner the back of the car smashed into dirt wall. Trowa grunted when his head the side of the passengers door, he would have headache after this entire ordeal. "At least we're alive," Quatre pointed out in a rather cheerful mood. "Shut up, Quatre," Wufei grumbled holding throbbing his head.
Zechs was awakened by a sudden pain in his stomach and a tug on his hair, he opened his eyes and found Mariamaia sitting ontop of him with large amount of his hair in the palm of her hand. He scowled at this sudden disturbance and attempted to remove Mariemaia when he caught sight of Une on the other side of the couch watching him with narrow eyes. He quickly withdrew his hand placing it back on the couch, Mariemaia smiled at him and hopped off of him. "Did you have a good sleep?" She asked sweetly. Zechs lifted himself off the couch wondering how he even got on the thing in the first place, if he remembered correctly he was staring up at the electronic map and then he finds himself here.
Which is strange, because he didn't remember falling asleep either. Running a hand through his hair he scanned his surrounding area to wake his eyes up when he felt a tug at his jacket. He turned to face Mariemaia who he had forgotten all about. "Oh, sorry," He said apologeticaly. "I slept well, thank you." With that he got up off the couch and made his way toward the door. Une watched him curiously and remembered why she came in the room to begin with. "Zechs, is something bothering you?" She asked. Zechs shook his head to her question not in the mood to talk. "Good, because I think you deserve some good news," Une said quickly. Zechs turned to face her with a look of confusion. "We have just reiveced word, that the Preventer 5 have completed their mission in destroying the mobile suit factories at the Corsica base and they have Relena with them just to let you know," Une explained to him briefly.
Zechs' blue eyes brightened for the first time since his mission. "Is there anything else I need to know, Lady Une?" Zechs asked curiously. Une shook her head as she picked Mariemaia up from off of the couch. "Not at the moment, but I'll let you know if there is," Une replied walking past him and out of room. Zechs watched the door close and once he knew he was alone, he let a smile spread across his face. He left the room with a extra spring in his step. He had to go and find Noin and tell her the good news.
[TBC]