After Eve Gundam Wing
Chapter EightThe small white cruiser ship landed on the long runway belonging to the Terra Alliance Military base, the new headquarters for the Preventers, a temporary stronghold until…things, were sorted out.
Upon landing and exiting the craft, they were all immediately escorted into the building with many fearsome, armed men. They all crowded around Rachel in particular. "It's for security Ma'am," said one of the officers. "You're a very important person now. We have to keep you safe."
"I can bloody well keep myself safe on my own thanks," said Rachel as she walked ahead of them all. The guards still made an attempt to catch up with her, and didn't abandon their post until she was safely inside the main building with the other pilots.
The short man named James, who they'd previously spoken to on their way there, first immediately greeted them. "Good," he sighed when he saw them. "You made it safely. Come and follow me. I'll take you to the infirmary to get your arm fixed up Rachel. The rest of you can tag along."
" 'The rest of us'?" asked Stephen as James and Rachel walked ahead. "Kinda makes you feel insignificant, no?"
"Tell me about it," said Kreed. "I never really did like James in the first place."
"He's just trying to help out Rachel now," said Jin, his arms crossed as they walked. "It's his job. He's trying to keep her as safe and as comfortable as possible."
Kreed didn't reply, instead choosing to just walk along ahead of them all still. It wasn't long before Rachel's arm was mended, because it was indeed only superficial. The bullet had barely scraped her arm, a lucky break for her. Following the brief chance they had to rest, they were called into a large room for an important meeting, the details of which weren't disclosed to them until they were there.
They entered the room to be greeted with the piercing glare of many men and women in coats and uniforms. They all stared at them as they walked in. It was rather intimidating to be surrounded by about twenty people who seemed angry at them.
"What's up?" asked Stephen. "We were called to a meeting, and here we are."
"Everyone just take a seat," said James. "And we'll get this thing started." The pilots and official-looking people did as they were instructed, sitting around a very long, rectangular wood table. Jin, however, chose to stand, leaning against a wall.
"I can't help but feel this won't be much fun," whispered Stephen to Anita, who was sitting to his side. Anita nodded without a word. They looked around at all the others around the table. They were all glaring at them, a look of hatred and contempt behind every single person's eyes.
"You all know what happened," said one man at the end of the table. It was some tall black man with short white hair and a mustache. "The Preventers Banquet wasn't just attacked… It was massacred. Many people died… Many important people died, people of great influence and political power. As you know, the leaders of many countries died. It was a mass-assassination."
"We know all this," said Jin, keeping his eyes closed with his arms folded as he leabed his back against the wall. "Why are we here?"
Silence greeted his question. "I see," muttered Jin, faking a smile. "We are to be held responsible then."
"What!" shouted Kreed. He immediately jumped out of his chair to stand up. "Tell me he's wrong."
"You guys were sent to stop this from happening," said another man coldly. "It was your mission. You disappeared for a couple days only to return without having sent any word and without having accomplished a single thing."
"You failed your mission," said a woman. "And what's worse, we have no idea exactly what happened while you were out there."
"You think we had a hand in this?" asked Jin. Again there was silence for a few seconds.
"There's no evidence to prove they've done anything wrong," spoke James.
"Precisely," said another man. "They just disappeared, and some time later, a Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Zero just appears and annihilates everything. That seems mighty suspicious."
"You think I did this," stated Jin calmly. "I must say I can't blame you for coming to a conclusion. In fact, I'd be worried if you didn't come to this conclusion."
"Are you admitting that it was you, Jin?" asked someone.
"I didn't say that," shot Jin quickly. "I merely stated that what little evidence there is, it points to me being the culprit, doesn't it? I was voicing my opinion that you would all have to be idiots to not suspect me…" Everyone was quiet yet again.
"Well Jin didn't do a damned thing," said Stephen as he stood up. "It's my fault all this happened. I was captured and used as bait to lure them to the base. It was because of me that we failed."
"Stop it Stephen," said Kreed.
"It's not your fault," said Rachel.
"It is my responsibility," said Stephen sternly. "No matter how you look at it, I have to accept responsibility for what happened as a result of my inability to fend for myself in that situation. Please don't make light of this situation by trying to make me feel better."
"Either way," said Jin, "it isn't solely Stephen's fault. We were all weak."
"But it's not all our fault," pleaded Rachel to the committee of people before her. This had to be the worst judgment she'd ever been through.
"Face it!" shouted the tall black man again. "You were the only defense we had. We counted on
"Face it!" shouted the tall black man again. "You were the only defense we had. We counted on you, and you failed. You let us down. You let everyone down. Now we're faced with one of the greatest tragedies of all time… You are all fired."
"Fired?" asked Kreed. "From the Preventers?"
"Yes," said the black man again. "You'll also be handing in you Gundams. We have to take them from you."
"You're welcome to try," said Jin with a smirk. "How do you suppose you're going to go about forcing us to hand the Gundams over?"
"They are property of the TAC, and thus we are in full right to demand you give them back."
"They were built by Doctor Howard Canton, and thus they are his property," said Anita, her blood boiling. "But he's dead now. So if anyone owns them, it's the people who pilot them."
"You won't be allowed to pilot them anymore," raged the black man. "You will turn them over to us, or you will be arrested!"
"Arrested?" asked Jin. "That's not very nice. Have you forgotten what these pilots have done for you in the past?"
"As you said, that's the past," barked the man. "This is now! Are you still going to defy us! Are you going to cooperated and hand over your Mobile Suit Gundams? I assure you , if you choose the latter, you will be released and allowed to walk from the charges that face you."
"Charges?" asked Jin, sounding amused. "This is getting entertaining."
"Don't even dare mock me!" he shouted. "You are looking at the rest of your lives in prison."
There was a violent silence in the room. It seemed no one was even breathing. Finally, the enraged man asked calmly, "So what is your decision? Will you choose peace… or imprisonment?"
Stephen, Anita, Kreed, and Rachel turned in their seats to look up at Jin. He didn't even look down at them. He knew what they were thinking. He knew what they wanted. He calmly looked the black man in the eyes and gave his reply.
"You can have the Gundams…" he said, "WHEN I AM DEAD!" Jin lashed out with both arms in opposite directions and grabbed the only two armed men in the room by the back of the collar, swinging them toward each other and bashing their heads together. Simultaneously the other four pilots shot up from their chairs and ran for the doors.
"Sorry guys," said Jin as he backed out of the room with a salute. "But it seems we've worn out our welcome here."
"Get them!" screamed the black man. "They mustn't be allowed to escape! Use any means necessary to secure the Gundams…even if it means killing the pilots!"
Jin ran in the lead with his copilots down a long corridor. After several seconds of running, the halls' lights turned rued and began flashing, an alarm. "Great," said Jin as they stopped at a corner and took a minute to assess the situation.
"The entire base'll know we've defected," said Stephen.
"I'm beyond caring about that right now," said Kreed. "Jin was right. We can't let them have the Gundams. They're ours, and only we can decide who uses them."
"We have to get them back," said Anita. "They're in the high-security hangar though. It'll be difficult to get them back."
"It's okay," said Jin. "We can manage. We've been in tougher situations before. Are you all with me?" He looked at his comrades, who all simultaneously gave a single nod.
"Good," he said. "Now let's get out of this hell-hole."
End Chapter Eight.
I know it's been forever since I updated. To be honest, I'm having computer problems again. All of my Word files have been corrupted by what I think is a virus, and anything new I type on the computer is instantly corrupted as well. I had to type this on the school computers.
Also, I've been severely lacking motivation and ideas for this story. It's hard to continue typing up a story you know very few people read, and thus it becomes harder to come up with ideas. As some of you might've read in my recent profile ( I have the worst case of writer's block I've ever experienced at the moment. However, some ideas have recently fallen into place, and the only problem I might have is putting them all together coherently, so updates should start flowing soon. I hope. Again, my apologies.
Oh, and you should read my profile. It's kinda interesting.