Author's note: Others own the rights to the G-Gundam characters.  All other characters are my creations.  Please do not use them without my permission.

Shadow Life – Part 2

By:  Diane Maher



          The next morning, Schwarz was putting some tools back into his core lander when he heard the sound of a rock as it was kicked into the brush.  He turned and saw Karla looking at her gundam.  He had completely repaired its leg during the night.  That damage had been less serious than he'd first thought.  Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she walked over to where he stood.

          "Thank you," said Karla as she put her hands on her hips.

          Schwarz glanced over his shoulder at her and replied, "Sure, no problem."

          He finished putting the last tool in its place.  When he turned to face Karla again a moment later, she was gone.  He looked up at Midnight Gundam and saw that she was climbing up into the cockpit.  "You don't waste time, do you?" he called to her.

          "I'm not here to waste time.  I'm here to fight in the gundam fight!" she called back.  A moment later, her masked head popped out of the cockpit once more.  "Don't let me stop you from leaving.  I know that you have places to go."

          "I'm in no rush to leave," said Schwarz.  He examined her sword, which was resting against his core lander.  "Mind if I look at your sword?"

          "Go ahead," replied Karla.  A moment later, he heard the sound of electricity popping, looked up and saw smoke coming from her gundam's cockpit.  "OW!" she shouted.

          Grabbing the sword, he quickly jumped up the gundam's body to the cockpit.  Poking his head inside, he asked, "Are you all right?"

          "Yeah.  One of the receptors on my mobile trace suit punctured this panel and that's how I almost got fried last night," said Karla, shaking her hand and then flexing her fingers.

          He went down to his core lander and returned with a piece of metal.  "May I suggest that you try this? It's titanium and won't be so easily fractured."

          When Karla took the piece from him, their hands touched briefly.  He looked into her brown eyes and found it difficult to turn away.  As Schwarz blinked and released his grip on the panel, he said, "I'll be in the forest.  I need to relax and focus my energies."

          "Okay.  This repair shouldn't take me long to complete.  I'll finish and then run a few tests before we leave this place," said Karla.

          Schwarz took a couple of steps before looking back and muttering, "What is this, are we partners now?" His smile beneath the mask was one of amusement.



          Karla chuckled at Schwarz's muttered comment.  She liked him.  He helped her out of a jam, but what bothered her was the as yet unknown reason of why he had done it in the first place.  Shaking her head to clear her thoughts and focus on the task at hand, she spot welded some brackets to hold the wires in place and then attached the metal plate that Schwarz had given her.  It was a perfect fit.  She put on a pair of boots and gloves with wires connected to them, stood and felt her gundam respond.  The cockpit door closed; she balanced herself on her right leg, and swung her left around and kicked her leg into the air several times.  She jumped up, did some more kicking and leg swings with her newly repaired left leg and then landed with all her weight on that leg alone.  It held and there was no indication of a problem from the mobile trace system maintenance mode.  She put both feet on the ground, shut off the gundam and the maintenance mode, and then opened the cockpit door.

          After taking off the boots and gloves and replacing those with hers, Karla jumped down from the gundam.  When she stood on the ground, she turned and looked up at its black visage.  Crossing her arms over her chest, she felt a surge of pride that she was able to get the cockpit back into good shape.  And Schwarz had done an excellent job repairing the left leg.

          She supposed that she should really go to the Austrian government facilities in Berlin to have a more thorough check of these recent repairs.  Instead, she decided to relax for a while.  Her transport, along with the mechanic who had been assigned to assist her during the gundam fight, was waiting for her in Berlin.  After he recently made a pass at her, she sent him ahead.  When she arrived in Berlin, she was going to demand a new mechanic.



          In the forest, Schwarz was using Karla's sword as he'd used his own before giving it to Domon Kasshu.  He was slicing through trees as though they were butter.  Right now, they were thin trees, even for him.  His mind kept wandering back to Karla.  It seemed to him that he knew her from somewhere.  Yet he never recalled meeting her before yesterday.  Looking up, he saw a tree that was at least the size of his body in diameter and charged it.

          Schwarz swung Karla's blade through the air.  He could hear the movement of the blade as it sliced through the air.  His sight was focused on the tree and the blade bit deeply into the tree.  It seemed to take an eternity for the blade to cut through the tree, yet he had put all his weight behind it and had felt that his mind was focused.  As the tree finally fell, Schwarz was troubled not only by his lack of concentration but also his thoughts about Karla and the sword fell from his hands to the ground where it landed with a thud.

          I keep thinking about Karla! Why? Schwarz wondered as he closed his eyes.

          It started raining.  Soon the drops began falling through the leaves and Schwarz felt several drops hit his head.  With a sigh, he leaned over, picked up the sword, returned it to its black scabbard, turned and headed back to the clearing where Karla and their gundams were.  It was time for him to move on.



          Karla was sitting on the blanket in the clearing and meditating when it started raining.  The rain continued to fall harder until she decided to take shelter.  It annoyed her that she wanted to seek shelter, but she had no desire to become sick.  Looking around, she found that she had two choices, either inside her gundam's cockpit or Schwarz's core lander.  She chose the latter as it was closer; she climbed inside, sat down and closed the canopy.  With a shrug, she closed her eyes to relax her mind once more.  The falling rain did more than allow her to relax; she inadvertently fell asleep.



          A short while later, the core lander's canopy opened briefly and startled Karla awake.  Opening her eyes, she saw Schwarz climbing in and relaxed.  Looking at the darkening sky, she saw that the rain wasn't letting up.

          Schwarz handed her sword back to her.  "It's an excellent blade.  Thanks for letting me borrow it."

          "You're welcome.  I suppose I'd better get going," said Karla.

          "Why?" inquired Schwarz as he closed the canopy.  "You might as well wait out the storm."

          With a shrug, Karla nodded her agreement as the sky grew darker and the storm outside raged on.



          "What happened during my fight? Why was Walesa almost able to defeat me?" wondered Karla aloud.

          "I think that you relied too much on the fact that your gundam becomes virtually invisible against the night sky.  Perhaps Neo-Poland knew to expect that from you," commented Schwarz.

          Incredulous, Karla asked, "You saw that?"

          With a nod, Schwarz acknowledged, "I did.  I was impressed.  I've never seen a gundam become virtually invisible in that way.  Next time, you should move quicker after it happens."

          Karla looked over at Schwarz.  "You wouldn't care to test me on that would you?" she asked with a playful wink.

          Schwarz folded his arms across his chest and softly chuckled.  "Not now."

          Her eyes narrowed and her tone was more serious as she asked, "Why not?"

          "Oh I'll be happy to test you, but I think we're better off conserving our energies for the time being," replied Schwarz calmly.

          Karla exclaimed, "You're talking in riddles!" Closing her eyes, she shook her head.  She took a few breaths to calm herself before continuing, "And you never did tell me why you helped me."

          Schwarz's dark gaze met hers.  He seemed to be contemplating his response.  "I saw a great fight between you and Neo-Poland.  During the fight, I noticed something in the forest behind you.  After your gundam fell, they advanced quickly on your position.  I suspected they were members of the dark army.  I couldn't just leave you there."

          Karla was silent for a moment as she considered what he said.  "Danke, Schwarz.  I owe you my life.  I won't forget that."



          As Schwarz and Karla waited in his core lander for the storm to abate, a video call came from the Neo-German government.

          "Ah, Schwarz, I see you've resurfaced since you fought in the battle with that monstrous Dark Gundam in Shinjuku," the Chancellor of Neo-Germany began.

          "Chancellor von Geist," answered Schwarz.

          The chancellor apparently noticed Karla's presence then and demanded, "Who is this?!"

          Schwarz replied, "This is the fighter from Neo-Austria.  Her name is Karla Geist."

          The Chancellor grunted an acknowledgement.  Schwarz frowned beneath his mask.  "She represents a different nation; she's your enemy!" the Chancellor protested vehemently.

          "Humph! Don't let me interrupt you!" muttered Karla acidly.  She opened the canopy and climbed out into the pouring rain.

          Schwarz's jaw hung open in shock beneath his mask as he stood and watched Karla as she ran to her gundam.  He sat down, closed the canopy and said, "Chancellor von Geist, was it necessary to be so rude to her? You could have..."

          "Silence! I could have you arrested for treason!" von Geist began sharply.  "But, I will overlook your fraternization with the Neo-Austria woman for now.  You are to focus on winning the Gundam fight for our Fatherland.  Is that clear?"

          Schwarz looked up as Midnight Gundam powered up and took off.  His sharp intake of breath was the only indication to the chancellor that anything had happened.

          When Schwarz looked back at the video console, his eyes narrowed slightly and his lips pursed into a flat line beneath his mask.  "Jawohl, Herr Chancellor," he replied sharply.

          "What's happening there?" von Geist demanded.

          Schwarz gave a single snort of laughter.  "Thanks to you, nothing is happening, sir.  Good-bye," replied Schwarz as he reached over to the console and turned off the video link.  Hmmm.  Chancellor Heinrich von Geist of Neo-Germany and now I've met this Karla Geist of Neo-Austria.  He knew that Geist was a common name in Neo-Germany.  Is the similarity of their names pure coincidence? Or is there a connection between them? wondered Schwarz.



          As Karla crossed the short distance to her gundam, she forced down the bitter anger in her heart.  It wasn't Schwarz's fault that the Neo-German chancellor was a royal pain in the ass.  She rubbed her eyes as her angry tears mixed with the rain.  When she climbed into her gundam's cockpit, she activated the mobile trace system.

          It will serve that pompous idiot of a chancellor right when I win the championship for Neo-Austria! thought Karla with a satisfied smirk.  When her mobile trace suit was snug on her body, she fired up the thrusters and took off in the direction of the old German capital of Berlin.

          As Karla flew her gundam towards Berlin, she came across a campsite in the woods.  She landed nearby and approached the campsite stealthily on foot.  Looking up, she saw the gundam that stood above her and recognized it as the Gundam Rose of Neo-France.

          George de Sand of Neo-France! I look forward to fighting you and your Gundam Rose! thought Karla as she left the cover of the trees and crossed to the small table where George sat relaxing with a glass of wine.

          "George de Sand," said Karla.

          "What the?" asked George.  Looking around and seeing no one, he demanded, "Who are you? Show yourself!"

          Karla laughed and became visible an arms' length from George.  "So you're the great George de Sand, knight extraordinaire of Neo-France."

          "Yes.  And just who are you under your mask?" asked George.

          "I am Karla Geist and I represent Neo-Austria," answered Karla as she calmly folded her arms across her chest.

          "What do you want here?" asked George, a sudden look of fear crossing his features.

          "I came to challenge you to a gundam fight," answered Karla.

          Stunned, George stood there, gaping.  Karla's eyes narrowed as she watched his body language.  Something was wrong.  Everything she had heard about this man suggested that he was indeed an excellent fighter and a noble knight.  She wondered, Is this the real George de Sand I see in front of me, a coward?