Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. I hope I followed the laws of physics close enough with the antisound thingy! XD This chapter's not as intense as I could have hoped…but…oh well, here it is! gets out her tissues TT
Chapter 55
They appeared in the middle of space, floating freely through the dark void. Precious suddenly began silently screaming and desperately flailing for Trowa. Slowly, Trowa reached to her and held her tightly, mouthing something but nothing seemed to come out.
"Trowa, sound doesn't carry in space. . ." Heero thought to him, looking in his direction.
"I know, I was trying to mouth the words to her. . .we also can't breathe in space but we seem to be doing just fine."
"That's my doing. . ." Rachel thought to him, looking out across the expanse to see where the attackers were coming from. Among the pale dots in darkness, a sparkling cloud began to rise from Earth like a fog, flowing toward them.
"We should meet them in our suits, fight them that way." Chang thought freely, staring at the approaching enemy with a glint of excitement in his eyes. Just then, their fleet of mobile suits appeared in front of them, the sun's light glimmering off their armor brilliantly. Asuka's eyes widened as she admired them.
"Let's go, we should stop them while they're far from the Colony." Heero thought, starting forward toward Wing.
"Wait, what about Precious, Asuka, Relena, and Sayla? They'll be vulnerable out here!" Quatre thought, looking worried as he held Sayla's hand tightly. She inched closer to him as she grasped his arm, pulling close to his form in fear.
"You're right, you stay behind and protect them and the Colony. Do you think you can handle that?" Heero thought, looking over his shoulder as he opened the hatch to climb inside of his suit.
"Of course, but. . .what do you mean protect the Colony? Isn't that what you guys are doing?"
"I think he means to form a force field around it to repel any stray fire from the fight. Here, keep Precious close, she's scared." Trowa thought as he floated up to Quatre. Chang argued with Asuka as she insisted on helping, finally shoving her toward Quatre. She floated aimlessly for a second before colliding with Quatre and the others gathered around him. Precious fought Trowa as he tried to get free of her hands and pass her off to Quatre, finding it difficult to free himself of her octopus grip.
"Let me try. . ." Duo came over and used his powers to make his voice echo into her ears as he calmed her in German. She finally looked up sadly and whimpered, looking close to tears. She backed away from Quatre and mouthed more comments
"She doesn't seem to like Quatre. . .sorry, man." Duo thought to Quatre who seemed hurt by the rejection. Duo spoke to her again and she slowly looked over at the group, stretching out her little hand to point to whom she wanted to hold her. Asuka blinked as Trowa handed Precious to her. With an uncomfortable look, Asuka held onto the little girl and looked at Duo with a death glare that sent chills down his spine.
"Yeesh, I'm better off out there, bye!" Duo darted off to his gundam and hopped in, quickly shutting the cockpit door.
"Quatre, do you think you can handle this on your own?" Rachel asked as she lagged behind, the others already boarded and preparing for attack. He looked a little scared but nodded, squeezing Sayla's hand to reassure himself of her presence. Rachel nodded back and floated to Verein, jumping in and starting up the engines, the small defensive fleet ready to do battle.
"Here they come guys, let's meet them with all we've got!" Duo shouted, firing up his beam scythe with a violent explosion of green light, griping the metal staff as he impatiently dove forward toward the incoming attackers.
"Duo, wait! We're attacking TOGETHER! BAKA!" Chang shouted, an irritated twitch pulsing under his left eye. With a flare of energy, all the Gundams roared to life, their best weapons drawn and ready for use as they flew forward. Heavy Arms began emptying clips on the first wave of mobile suits, blasting several into oblivion as Wing flew in behind the floating debris to take out the few dazed Taurus caught off guard by the onslaught.
"Take them out from the inside, their leader's somewhere near the center of the attack." Milliardo said, zigzagging through the crowd of suits and slashing through the metal bodies with his beam saber.
I knew you'd say that. . . A voice rang in everyone's ears and they all froze, looking around at each other.
"Une. . ." Noin said quietly.
"She's the leader, but where-" Heero searched through the vast sea of mobile suits looking for one that might stand out more than the rest. His eyes barely landed on a Leo loaded down with a beam cannon before the weapon was fired.
"INCOMING!" Milliardo shouted, dashing quickly out of the way. The tremendous laser beam cut through the battle like a blade as everyone jumped out of the way.
"AH!" Noin jerked the steering of Sandrock as its shoulder armor was clipped, ripping it from the left side.
"The Colonies, it's heading straight for them!" Duo exclaimed as they all watched on helplessly as the blast of power shot through space and finally dissipated against an invisible field around the entire Colony.
"Looks like Quatre's doing his job." Trowa said, turning to Une's Leo. But no one could find it, a crowd of mobile suits had suddenly advanced and swamped them with attacks, focusing on Sandrock.
"Noin!" Desperately, Noin slashed at any suits coming close, any escape routes cut off by the mass of mobile suits. They bombarded her with rifle blasts and she took the brunt of the attack in the left arm, losing a Shotel as it flew off into space in pieces. Tallgeese's rockets roared to maximum as he tore into the mass of mobile suits around Noin, ripping the group apart with his beam sabers and clearing an escape path.
"Hurry!" Milliardo shouted to Noin. She flew free of the attack and spun through space slowly as her engines cut off for a moment. Tallgeese flew up next to her, grabbing Sandrock's right arm and holding it still as Milliardo said, "Noin, are you alright?"
Yeah, I'm fine. . .Sandrock's damaged pretty bad, the engines don't want to stay on. gasp Milliardo, loo- Suddenly, a beam of light shattered the darkness and ripped through half of Tallgeese's body, its legs being torn from its frame.
"There's Une, fire!" Duo exclaimed, aiming Deathscythe's head in Une's direction and firing his Vulcan gun on her location. Trowa joined in the attack and they began blasting the mobile suits away from her, trying to clear a path of attack. But for every Taurus they blew apart, two more flew in to replace it as a shield, allowing Une to escape alive.
"DANG IT! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Duo roared, flying toward the blockade with his beam scythe drawn and fully charged, bringing up the blade and slashing through Taurus and Aries and anything else in his way. Chang flew in behind him, Shenlong's Dragon Fang launching from his arm and clamping onto an Aries, throwing the suit into another before he let his Vulcan gun unleash its ammunition on the two suits. They exploded and Chang drew his Beam Glaive, igniting it and facing Deathscythe. Duo faced him too and grinned, saying, "I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. . ."
"I'll use my 'Schwartz' to turn you into munch meat if you don't shutup!" Shenlong threatened to whack Deathscythe with its beam Glaive when Wing flew by, saying, "She's getting away while you two are bickering. . .have you noticed?"
"ARGH! I'll get you later, Maxwell. . ." Chang took off after Wing and slashed some futile attackers in irritation. Duo rolled his eyes and flew toward the crippled Tallgeese, saying, "Hey, Milliardo, are you alright in there?"
"Y. . .yes. . .just a little, shook up, that's all." Milliardo said, not wanting Duo to see the blood slowly running down his face from a cut he got during the attack. He weakly pressed the com button and spoke softly to Noin, "Noin. . .are you okay? Noin?. . .Noin!"
Sandrock! Noin, be careful! My gundam. . .Quatre thought nervously, seeing the attack on his gundam. He grit his teeth as he held the shield around the Colony at full power, sweat beginning to leave his body from the stress. Sayla floated close to Asuka, watching Quatre twitch under the strain, wishing she could encourage him or do something to help.
Quatre. . .I wish you could hear me. . .please, hold on, Quatre. Sayla thought, feeling like crying out of frustration.
Hurry up and finish them off already! This kid's getting too clingy. . .Asuka looked down at Precious as the little girl clenched Asuka's hair in his little fist and strained to see what was going on. She watched Precious for a moment and thought, She's really attached to that Trowa guy. . .wonder if it's his kid. . .another kid lost in a war. . .She held her closer and Precious looked up into her eyes, looking sad. Asuka smiled and Precious' lower lip shivered a little before she buried her face in Asuka's dress.
Great. . .I try to be nice and she cries! What's with this kid. . .Asuka thought, feeling a little uncomfortable about holding a crying child. She looked over at Relena and her gaze was returned. Relena saw her predicament and made a slow circular motion with her hand and nodded to Precious. Looking down, Asuka started rubbing Precious' back in slow circles and the child calmed down, sniffing and loosening her grip on Asuka's hair.
She's. . .asleep? Well, I guess it's better than wailing her eyes out and pulling on my hair. She's actually kinda cute. . .Asuka smiled up at Relena a thank you and she nodded back. Suddenly, a glint of light caught their eyes and they looked up to see another beam of light slam into the force field and cause Quatre more agony.
QUATRE! Sayla screamed in her mind, pushing against Asuka to begin moving toward Quatre.
Hey! Asuka glared at Sayla as she floated back toward the Colony.
"Une got around us, she's attacking the Colony!" Duo exclaimed, seeing the laser blast hit the force field again. Another blast hit the shield and it almost shuttered against the attack.
"Quatre's not gonna hold up much longer, we have to help him!" Rachel exclaimed. She blasted her rockets and flew rapidly toward the Colonies, hoping she wouldn't be too late. Tallgeese quickly caught up and he said to her, "I'll help, I know how Une pilots so I can take out her Beam cannon."
"Do what you can, we have to draw her fire away from the force field before she breaks through." They finally reached Une as she shot another laser blast at the force field and made it shake more violently. Rachel brought out her beam sabers, igniting them and diving on Une's Leo, ramming it and knocking her off course. She turned the cannon on her and charged it, firing and nearly taking Verein out. The force ripped Verein's right arm clean off, along with one of her sabers.
"Dang. . .Milliardo, look out!" Rachel shouted, withdrawing as Une positioned herself to shoot Tallgeese. Milliardo managed to avoid getting hit by the powerful blast and dove in to attack Une. As Une tried to attack Tallgeese again, she saw Verein flying toward the force field. Quickly, she swung the cannon around and fired on Verein.
"Rachel, NO!" Milliardo screamed, watching as the light swallowed the gundam whole.
"RACHEL!" Quatre screamed, starting to lose his control on the shield. He stared on in horror, feeling his stomach churning in sickness as he felt like throwing up. He felt a body collide with his and he looked back, his gaze locking with Sayla's.
"Sayla. . ." He thought to her, looking back with tears in his eyes as he watched the beam of light slowly disappear.
"Quatre. . .don't be afraid for me. . ." A voice drifted through his thoughts and he blinked, finally seeing a form floating through the void of space where Verein once was. With brilliance unmatched by the sun, light emanated from the body and melted into two glowing wings. The light spread further and the angelic being grew larger to the size of Une's Leo, the light dimming enough for everyone to be able to see it.
"R. . .Rachel?" Milliardo watched the angel of light float toward Une, facing her with its wings spread far out behind it. In a booming monotone voice, the angel spoke, "This war has gone on far too long, voices have been hushed like our own conscious, lives have been extinguished like a candle in the dark. I am here to bring back that light ten fold and banish the darkness from the world, to put a stop to your tyrannous reign. For the Organization of the Zodiac, this will be its death decree. You no longer have any power over the world!" With a sweep of its arms, a wave of light burst from the angel's body, expanding like a ripple on a pond and swallowing the mobile suits. They vanished with the light and the angel, leaving the Gundam pilots in a confused and dazed state.
"What. . .just happened. . ." Trowa muttered, his eyes wide with surprise.
"She's gone. . .she took OZ with her. . ." Duo said, tears running down his cheeks as he hung his head.
No. . .she. . .she can't be gone. . .can she? Relena thought, staring at the darkness with a sick feeling working its way into her stomach.
Why. . .we could have finished them, why did she sacrifice herself? Heero thought, staring blankly at the empty space between Earth and the Colonies.
"N. . .no. . .Rachel. . ." Quatre gasped sharply, feeling the pains of the force field setting in as he let down his defenses.
"Foolish. . .woman. . ." Chang choked out, wincing as his eyes stung with hot tears eagerly fighting to get free. Asuka blinked, feeling her heart pound in her chest like an unsteady drumbeat as she clutched Precious tightly in her arms, the child oblivious of the tragedy as she stared at Asuka questioningly.
It's over then. . .the battle, the endless fights. . .it's all over. . .we're finally free with one last sacrifice. . .but was it worth it?
