**Disclaimer** Alright, I don't own the gundam series. Bandai does. That's enough.
Chapter 6- The Zero Effect
Lady Une stood by a window in the administrator's office of the New Edward's Base. She had watched Alex's reaction at the sight of the jacket and his mobile suit. She almost had a smile about the deal, except she had other business to take care of first. She turned away from the window and walked over the facility administrator. The man looked normal and was well respected in the Preventor Corps. He sat in an armchair as Lady Une sat in chair opposite his desk.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I want you to keep quiet about our new arrival to this facility, along with the mobile suit that had been sent here a month ago. This matter has to be kept under wraps even from the Administrators of the Preventors."
"You want me to lie to the Administrative Board?"
"I don't want you to lie about it. Just don't send in this information. The man that was sent here isn't technically alive. It wouldn't go over very well with the Administrators."
"So omitting the information. But if the Administrative board found out…"
"Your head as well as mine would be on a platter. I'm very well aware of that."
"What does this base get out of me doing this for you?"
"Increased resource circulation, more money for further expansion; anything else that you might find necessary."
The administrator stood up and walked over to his filing cabinet. He pulled out a file and walked back over to the desk.
"I requested some more gundanium restraints for mobile suits awhile back." He flipped through some of the papers. "Haven't gotten an answer to my form yet. Could you put through the order?"
"Why would this place need that sort of thing?"
As their conversation had been going on, a mobile suit had been slowly lowered in the background with platforms underneath of it. As the legs passed by the window, the mobile suit looked more and more like a gundam. Wing Zero finally came to rest beyond the window.
"The ordinary restraints put on mobile suits wear from constant maintenance, and will break apart within months. Gundanium restraints last for at least three times as long under the same conditions."
"Ok. I'll try my best to get that order through for you. Don't expect it at first though."
"Good."
They continued to talk about issues that were related to the events in and around the base. An hour had passed by and a call came up on the videophone in the office.
The administrator pressed the button and his secretary was on the other side.
"Martha, what is it?"
"The police chief of district 114 from San Francisco has called in to talk to Colonel Une."
"Oh, really?"
"Why would he want to talk to me?"
"Don't ask me Colonel. I'm just a secretary. Do you want me to relay the transmission to you?"
"Yes."
The secretary's line scrambled up and the police chief appeared on the videophone. The administrator turned the videophone so that both he and Lady Une could see the man. The police chief had a graying beard, and seemed about the age of fifty.
"Colonel Une. It's good that I got through to you. I've some news for you."
"What might that be?"
"The charges against the man, who currently in your custody, have been dropped completely. Due to new evidence."
"Great. What evidence might that be?"
"The description of the cloaked man on the rooftop from the man was the first evidence, but we thought he had made it up to cover the deaths of those three men. The other piece of evidence came from ballistics. The angles the shots were made from indicate that the gun was on a nearby roof. The man we arrested was on ground level, so it couldn't have been him. Even if he had run down some stairs, he would have been worn out from doing so. The arresting officers said he was only worn out from running out of the alley."
"What about this 'cloaked man's' description?"
"Like I said, at first we thought he was covering up or my men did. I took a look at the description myself, and it seemed like I was reliving a nightmare from over twenty years ago."
"A nightmare? Why is that?"
"During the years of AC-176 through AC-179, my police department in cooperation with others on earth and in the colonies hunted down a man that had a great similarity to that of this description."
"I never heard of that manhunt."
"That is because it was held in secret; we didn't want the public to go into a panic. Especially after what happened in AC-175."
"What did he do?"
"He killed twenty politicians, and who knows how many others. He killed each one brutally, absolutely no remorse. We gave the man the name 'Silent Wind' from the blood message he always left near the victim's body. No witnesses to the murders either."
Lady Une paused at the man's words. "How did he get a description, then?"
"A witness saw the man on the roof of a victim's apartment complex, shortly after a murder. The person gave us the description, but the killer somehow found out and our witness was found hung with fishing line around their neck. Oh God, I can't think of that person without crying. I'm just going to send you the rest of the data on that case. It should be coming through your fax machine." The fax machine in the office began to receive and printed up the documents that were being sent. "Do you have any other questions before I terminate this conversation?" The man was in tears.
"You were one of the officers working on that case, weren't you?" The police chief didn't respond. "Thought so, I need nothing more. Thank you for your time."
The video link died and Lady Une looked back at the administrator.
"You don't mind the fax, do you?"
"Not at all."
Lady Une grabbed up the data as it came in. From the reading, it was soon apparent that the police didn't kid around about this guy. The photos of the victims alone sent chills down her spine; blood everywhere around the body, and the words 'Silent Wind' spelled in blood in some of the pictures. It was also apparent that most of the victims had been killed with a single bullet, a fifty-calibur bullet to be precise from the ballistics reports. Lady Une flipped through more pages of the report and came across what the chief had meant by a nightmare. In AC-179 the case on the assassin called Silent Wind had been closed. An explosion in a metropolitan factory on the outskirts of Paris had killed the assassin along with a SWAT team that was sent into the building on a raid. Even then, the raid wasn't meant to catch Silent Wind, but instead it was for the assassin that had killed Heero Yuy four years earlier. Somehow Silent Wind was found there purely on accident as the SWAT team entered the building; the last words from the SWAT team were 'Tango spotted. It is the Black Veil Killer.' In the aftermath of the explosion, police forces were hard pressed to find the ashes of the SWAT team let alone the man they had deemed a demon. The day after this event, Silent Wind's case was closed.
"If this man that Snow saw really was this assassin, how come Snow wasn't killed by him? Secondly, why after all these years, would he start his killings again?"
"I don't know, I would like to know how he managed to get out of that explosion without dying."
"That too. But, I'm more concerned that he might come after Snow, though."
"Your man should be just fine."
"I hope so."
An alarm went off and red lights flashed from the mobile suit maintenance bay. The alarm sound was different from most alarms in a sense that it phased in and out; that way people wouldn't go deaf from the noise.
"What's that alarm for?"
"It means that a mobile suit is trying to escape."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Make it stop! Make it stop! I beg of you! Make it stop!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wing Zero thrashed its arm restraints forward and then its leg restraints. Each gave into the power of the gundam, but didn't break. The gundam squirmed and thrashed more as it tried to escape the maintenance bay. The hip restraints didn't bung an inch as the powerful gundam tried its best to break loose.
A group of wires led from the cockpit door and onto the catwalk where a computer system and devices were hooked up. This catwalk shook every time Wing Zero thrashed. The devices slid from one side to another, let alone the people who were around it. A scientist sat by the computer nervously as several of the instruments indicated dangerously levels of brain activity of the pilot inside of Wing Zero. Every time he tried to cut power to the gundam, the command met with error and Wing Zero shut out the scientist's computer after several attempts. Heero calmly stood behind scientist and watched both the instruments and Wing Zero.
'Zero. This is unlike you, what are you trying to do?'
A maintenance crew desperately grabbed a hold of the railings with each shake seemingly worse than the last. Duo and Quatre slowly made their way down the catwalk as they held onto the rails; not wanting to fall. They had almost made it to the cockpit and were about to grab onto it.
"Cut the power. Damn it."
"I can't. The mobile suit has locked me out."
"That's just great." Duo sarcastically said.
"Duo, give me a hand!"
Quatre and Duo reached out and grabbed the top of the cockpit door. Just as they did though, Wing Zero thrashed forward and sent them crashing into the catwalk.
"What happened?"
"Got thrown back."
"Shit."
Heero saw them vainly attempt to get at the cockpit, but weren't very successful at it. He peered back the scientist who barely kept his seat in place.
"Vitals."
"Human brains can't function at this level for very long. If the system continues, he will die."
"More reason to pry that door open." Duo shouted as Quatre and him tried again.
"What was the point of this experiment, anyway?" Quatre grabbed onto the cockpit again and promptly got knocked off.
"I wanted to see if Zero would show anything to Alex." Heero leaned over the scientist and glared at the devices. "Didn't think this would happen though."
Wing Zero thrashed another time and sent some of the devices over the railing. Everyone, but Heero and the scientist, crashed into the railings and held on for dear life. As sudden as the thrashings began, Wing Zero stopped dead cold and the arms went to rest against the wall. Its legs stood firmly against the ground. A second later, the cockpit door slowly began to open.
"What the hell?"
"Quatre let's get going."
"Right." Duo and Quatre dashed over to the opening cockpit.
"The mobile suit shut itself down. There is nothing to explain it."
Heero looked at Wing Zero with almost a hint of confusion on his face.
'What was it Zero?'
Quatre and Duo hopped into the cockpit and reappeared with the unconscious Alex. Sensors covered his body and Duo was taking them off several at a time.
'What did he see?'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex was lying down on some grass; the grass was soft and seemed almost artificial, but it swayed against him with the wind. He opened his eyes and colony ceiling with its stretched arch.
'A colony? I thought I was on earth.'
He pulled himself into a sitting position and took a long look around him. The stuff around him seemed older than it should have; everything was modern and all, but everything seemed to be a version from over a decade ago.
'What the hell?'
After he dragged himself to a standing position, he saw a facility, a factory at first glance, to his left, and the place had the air of familiarity with it; Alex had no idea why. The facility beckoned him to walk toward it, and his body obeyed. He walked against his own will; no way to stop himself.
"Stop it!"
Alex got back control over his body and stared at the facility. His mind cleared itself out and the facility was the only thing left.
'Have I see this place before? I don't remember a building like it.'
As he stared, two people, one a grown man and a young child of four, frantically ran out of the building; the man did at least, with the boy being dragged along. They were running toward Alex, but didn't seem to notice him. Alex stared at the man closely and thought he had seen him before. Not sure where he knew the man from, though. The man stopped suddenly and looked back at the little boy along with the facility. He picked up the boy and held him in his arms; then proceeded to book even faster away from the facility. At that moment, Alex saw the face even better and knew who it was.
'Rio. He might be a few years younger than I remember, but that is Rio. The child must be me then.'
Alex cried with joy and ran toward his brother.
"Rio!"
He continued to run at Rio even though the man didn't react to his presence. Alex was within striking distance and tried to hug his brother; he found to his horror that he passed right through Rio. He stopped dead in his tracks and held his hands in front of his face.
'A dream. No, a memory.'
Alex couldn't get himself to move an inch as he looked at his hands.
'Zero succeeded in unlocking memories that were long lost. What else did it...'
A bright light shined from the gaps of Alex's fingers. He let his hands fall to his side as another horrific sight occurred in front of him.
An explosion erupted from the rooftop of the facility followed by several smaller explosions on the third floor of the building. A moment of silence fell over the place, and then the third floor completely exploded. A ripple effect followed, the second then the first floor exploded. The colony ground split open with cracks that fractured in all directions. The structure couldn't hold its own weight anymore, and the facility crumbled to the ground. Rubble flew everywhere, and some had missed Alex by inches.
After the initial explosions, Alex wasn't fazed by any of the events that happened in front of him.
'Ito was right. Rio did do it.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A blurred vision of people came to Alex, but couldn't identify them.
"Alex. Do you hear me?"
"Snap out of it."
"I think he is coming..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex couldn't believe his eyes as he stood at the entrance to Hilde's and Duo's junkyard. The things he had just seen were washed away at the sight of the junkyard.
'I'm back.'
He took a step forward and went through the entrance.
Suddenly, Alex found himself on a bombed out street. Buildings lay in ruins around him, and smoke fumed upward toward the colony sky.
'It can't be.'
Alex began to run as fast as he could manage. He finally came upon a smoldering wreck of mobile suit, a Leo. The mobile suit had a molten hole through its back.
'There is no way. It just can't be. Not that battle.'
His worst fear was very real as he saw two standing mobile suits; Icedig and Toteis.
"God no! Get the hell out of there!" Alex panicked and ran at the two mobile suits.
Toteis ignited its beam saber and jetted at Icedig. Icedig ignited its beam saber just in time to block the attack. Icedig tried to counter-attack, but Toteis blocked every effort made by Icedig. These efforts would prove even more useless against Toteis, as this enemy started its second wave of attacks.
"Retreat! Get Sandrock! Don't fight him!"
Toteis jumped off the ground and smashed Icedig in the torso with its leg. Icedig collapsed to the ground on its back, and the beam saber it held was flung out of hand. Toteis slowly approached Icedig again, but Icedig activated its shoulder thrusters; it got a good distance away. Icedig pulled out its gundanium sabre, and charged at Toteis at full speed.
"NO!"
Toteis flew toward Icedig, but at the last moment Toteis slid to its right. Icedig stopped its charge and turned its head to find the Toteis had gone off to. Volleys of missiles appeared out of nowhere and were headed toward Icedig. It thrusted backward and dodged the attack. More volleys of missiles came at it. Icedig dodged the missiles again, but nearly got hit. There was no sign of the unknown mobile suit, none whatsoever. Toteis smashed the back of Icedig and sent it reeling forward. The mobile suit crashed into a building, that somehow managed not to get damaged up to this point, and Icedig collapsed into the ground.
"Shit... Stop fighting!"
Alex was halfway to the battle, but he was nearly out of breath. He couldn't run, not anymore. Alex fell to his knees and put his hands on the pavement while he continued to watch the battle.
Icedig rose up again while it held its gundanium sabre in its right hand. Toteis was in sight, there was no mistake, and Icedig planned on taking out the suit. The building behind Icedig erupted in smoke as two blue mobile suit arms appeared and restrained it. The building gave out and it collapsed. Once the smoke settled, Flugtod had Icedig in its arms, and Icedig was helpless. The gundanium sabre fell to the ground and penetrated it, which left it standing up.
Alex got back up after a second wind kicked in and dashed off to stop the events in front of him. An old-fashioned army truck passed Alex along the way.
'Must get there.'
Icedig was forced to the ground with its head smashed into the pavement; only the cockpit wasn't touching the ground. The truck pulled up to the two mobile suits while Toteis stood a distance away as though on guard. Several men jumped out of the vehicle and raced over to cockpit of Icedig. Another moment passed, the pilot of Icedig was seized and dragged into the truck by the men.
Alex finally reached the area, but the truck drove off on him. He was too late to help himself. Alex wouldn't have able to catch the truck; it was gone.
Flugtod let go of the now pilot-less Icedig, and picked up the gundanium sabre as it stood back up. Toteis turned its attention back to Icedig and walked over to it. Flugtod left the area in the same direction as the truck had.
A black void engulfed the area around Alex.
"Why are you showing me this, Zero?"
No response.
"WHY!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'm telling you that he is in a coma. There is nothing I can do."
"Come on. You've got to do something."
"I can't. Only the patient can pull himself back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex was now in a place eerily familiar to him. He was in a hallway lined with cylinders filled with pinkish liquids. There was an object in each cylinder, some big and some small. Alex stepped closer toward one of the cylinders and saw what the object was, a human baby; umbilical cord and all, just without the mother. The cylinder also had a number at its base; this one happened to be 654.
'Why are these children numbered?'
He walked down the hall and saw more and more of the same.
'What the hell is this place?'
As Alex continued down the hallway he came upon a computerized door with a sign that said, Infant Care. Undeterred, Alex walked to the door and tried to walk through it like he had done with people. He banged his head against the door and fell onto the ground.
Alex raised one hand into the air. "Note. Must push something to see if its there next time. Don't use head." The arm collapsed to his side. After a few stunned moments, Alex got himself back up and he brushed off some dirt from his pants.
The door opened as he dusted off his pants. Alex looked up to see what had opened the door and his face went pale from the person he saw.
'Isn't that the man who... Wait... who is he?'
A man, that wore a black outfit, black trench coat, and a veil that covered his face, walked through the door. His arms at his side were perfectly still with step he took, and his hands had black gloves on. The man walked past Alex without a bit of care. Alex himself had chills come over him, and he could only keep an eye on him for a little while.
'Why is he doing here? What is this place?'
As Alex thought about the man, the door began to close.
'I almost forgot about the door.'
Alex charged at the door and leaped through the opening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Darkness. Nothing but darkness. Where am I going? I can't see. Shit. What's happening? I can't feel anything either. Shit. There are no more memories torturing me, but I can't see or feel anything. Was that price worth it? Yes... No.... It's never worth it. But, now my mind doesn't see any more memories. What the hell happened? It must been a shock to my system when I went into that room. Wait. Did I go into that room? If I did, then what did I see? I couldn't have gone in, but I remember running through the door. Wait. There is a sensation in my arm, but its not like I hit that door. That was my head that did that. This sensation actually feels real.'
Alex opened his eyes and a light shined down on him. He squinted and slowly the light dissipated to sooth the eyes rather than blind them. Alex turned his head and saw he was in a hospital issued bed surrounded by curtains. He saw that he had a traditional patient's gown. Alex pulled himself up into a sitting position, and tried to take in his surroundings. It was during the day, the sunlight from the other side of the curtains made that obvious, and it appeared he might have been on earth. His arm felt the same sensation right before he woke up, and he looked at it. There was a needle that slowly injected clear solution into his bloodstream. He yanked out the needle along with anything else that was attached to him.
"Is this another memory, or a disillusion of Zero's? No it feels too real."
A doctor opened one of the curtains and closed it behind him. He didn't look at Alex as he entered and looked at a clipboard with Alex's current medical information. He pulled a popsicle stick wrapped in paper and tore off the paper. The doctor looked up and saw Alex as he sat there.
"Good. You are awake."
"Have I been out long?"
"A week."
"Oh. Must have needed the rest."
"Open your mouth please."
Alex complied with the doctor's request and the doctor put the popsicle in his mouth. He put a little flashlight into his mouth as well. The doctor pulled out the popsicle and brought an odd looking device that was curved to a small round point. He put the device into Alex's right ear and looked through it.
"What's that for?"
"It's to make sure that your ears are clean and to check on a few others things."
"Ok."
"Turn your head this way."
Alex did as the doctor said again, and the doctor looked into his left ear. The doctor pulled it away again.
"Now for your eyes."
"What about my eyes."
The doctor put away the odd device and pulled an even stranger device that looked similar to the other except it curved outward from a viewing hole. "Just making sure that your eyes are good."
Alex opened his eyes as wide as possible and the doctor viewed each eye carefully. The doctor took away the device and let go of Alex.
"Well. I must say. You are just fine."
"Good. May I ask, what was being injected into me?"
"It's a mild painkiller."
"Painkiller? For what?"
"Those scars on your back. They are in such a place with the nervous system that laying on them would sting a lot. We decided to give you the painkiller so you wouldn't suffer as much when sleeping."
"Thanks. I guess."
Alex slid himself to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the ground. The doctor was about to leave when he remembered something.
"Oh yeah. Your clothes are in the closet on the other side of the curtain. I was told to tell you that you are to report in when you were first able to."
"Gotcha." Alex waved at the man. 'I'm definitely back in reality. Not even the Zero system is this cruel.'
-Author Notes-
Alright, I'm back on the writing track. I should be back to writing fully soon... I hope.
Chapter 6- The Zero Effect
Lady Une stood by a window in the administrator's office of the New Edward's Base. She had watched Alex's reaction at the sight of the jacket and his mobile suit. She almost had a smile about the deal, except she had other business to take care of first. She turned away from the window and walked over the facility administrator. The man looked normal and was well respected in the Preventor Corps. He sat in an armchair as Lady Une sat in chair opposite his desk.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I want you to keep quiet about our new arrival to this facility, along with the mobile suit that had been sent here a month ago. This matter has to be kept under wraps even from the Administrators of the Preventors."
"You want me to lie to the Administrative Board?"
"I don't want you to lie about it. Just don't send in this information. The man that was sent here isn't technically alive. It wouldn't go over very well with the Administrators."
"So omitting the information. But if the Administrative board found out…"
"Your head as well as mine would be on a platter. I'm very well aware of that."
"What does this base get out of me doing this for you?"
"Increased resource circulation, more money for further expansion; anything else that you might find necessary."
The administrator stood up and walked over to his filing cabinet. He pulled out a file and walked back over to the desk.
"I requested some more gundanium restraints for mobile suits awhile back." He flipped through some of the papers. "Haven't gotten an answer to my form yet. Could you put through the order?"
"Why would this place need that sort of thing?"
As their conversation had been going on, a mobile suit had been slowly lowered in the background with platforms underneath of it. As the legs passed by the window, the mobile suit looked more and more like a gundam. Wing Zero finally came to rest beyond the window.
"The ordinary restraints put on mobile suits wear from constant maintenance, and will break apart within months. Gundanium restraints last for at least three times as long under the same conditions."
"Ok. I'll try my best to get that order through for you. Don't expect it at first though."
"Good."
They continued to talk about issues that were related to the events in and around the base. An hour had passed by and a call came up on the videophone in the office.
The administrator pressed the button and his secretary was on the other side.
"Martha, what is it?"
"The police chief of district 114 from San Francisco has called in to talk to Colonel Une."
"Oh, really?"
"Why would he want to talk to me?"
"Don't ask me Colonel. I'm just a secretary. Do you want me to relay the transmission to you?"
"Yes."
The secretary's line scrambled up and the police chief appeared on the videophone. The administrator turned the videophone so that both he and Lady Une could see the man. The police chief had a graying beard, and seemed about the age of fifty.
"Colonel Une. It's good that I got through to you. I've some news for you."
"What might that be?"
"The charges against the man, who currently in your custody, have been dropped completely. Due to new evidence."
"Great. What evidence might that be?"
"The description of the cloaked man on the rooftop from the man was the first evidence, but we thought he had made it up to cover the deaths of those three men. The other piece of evidence came from ballistics. The angles the shots were made from indicate that the gun was on a nearby roof. The man we arrested was on ground level, so it couldn't have been him. Even if he had run down some stairs, he would have been worn out from doing so. The arresting officers said he was only worn out from running out of the alley."
"What about this 'cloaked man's' description?"
"Like I said, at first we thought he was covering up or my men did. I took a look at the description myself, and it seemed like I was reliving a nightmare from over twenty years ago."
"A nightmare? Why is that?"
"During the years of AC-176 through AC-179, my police department in cooperation with others on earth and in the colonies hunted down a man that had a great similarity to that of this description."
"I never heard of that manhunt."
"That is because it was held in secret; we didn't want the public to go into a panic. Especially after what happened in AC-175."
"What did he do?"
"He killed twenty politicians, and who knows how many others. He killed each one brutally, absolutely no remorse. We gave the man the name 'Silent Wind' from the blood message he always left near the victim's body. No witnesses to the murders either."
Lady Une paused at the man's words. "How did he get a description, then?"
"A witness saw the man on the roof of a victim's apartment complex, shortly after a murder. The person gave us the description, but the killer somehow found out and our witness was found hung with fishing line around their neck. Oh God, I can't think of that person without crying. I'm just going to send you the rest of the data on that case. It should be coming through your fax machine." The fax machine in the office began to receive and printed up the documents that were being sent. "Do you have any other questions before I terminate this conversation?" The man was in tears.
"You were one of the officers working on that case, weren't you?" The police chief didn't respond. "Thought so, I need nothing more. Thank you for your time."
The video link died and Lady Une looked back at the administrator.
"You don't mind the fax, do you?"
"Not at all."
Lady Une grabbed up the data as it came in. From the reading, it was soon apparent that the police didn't kid around about this guy. The photos of the victims alone sent chills down her spine; blood everywhere around the body, and the words 'Silent Wind' spelled in blood in some of the pictures. It was also apparent that most of the victims had been killed with a single bullet, a fifty-calibur bullet to be precise from the ballistics reports. Lady Une flipped through more pages of the report and came across what the chief had meant by a nightmare. In AC-179 the case on the assassin called Silent Wind had been closed. An explosion in a metropolitan factory on the outskirts of Paris had killed the assassin along with a SWAT team that was sent into the building on a raid. Even then, the raid wasn't meant to catch Silent Wind, but instead it was for the assassin that had killed Heero Yuy four years earlier. Somehow Silent Wind was found there purely on accident as the SWAT team entered the building; the last words from the SWAT team were 'Tango spotted. It is the Black Veil Killer.' In the aftermath of the explosion, police forces were hard pressed to find the ashes of the SWAT team let alone the man they had deemed a demon. The day after this event, Silent Wind's case was closed.
"If this man that Snow saw really was this assassin, how come Snow wasn't killed by him? Secondly, why after all these years, would he start his killings again?"
"I don't know, I would like to know how he managed to get out of that explosion without dying."
"That too. But, I'm more concerned that he might come after Snow, though."
"Your man should be just fine."
"I hope so."
An alarm went off and red lights flashed from the mobile suit maintenance bay. The alarm sound was different from most alarms in a sense that it phased in and out; that way people wouldn't go deaf from the noise.
"What's that alarm for?"
"It means that a mobile suit is trying to escape."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Make it stop! Make it stop! I beg of you! Make it stop!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wing Zero thrashed its arm restraints forward and then its leg restraints. Each gave into the power of the gundam, but didn't break. The gundam squirmed and thrashed more as it tried to escape the maintenance bay. The hip restraints didn't bung an inch as the powerful gundam tried its best to break loose.
A group of wires led from the cockpit door and onto the catwalk where a computer system and devices were hooked up. This catwalk shook every time Wing Zero thrashed. The devices slid from one side to another, let alone the people who were around it. A scientist sat by the computer nervously as several of the instruments indicated dangerously levels of brain activity of the pilot inside of Wing Zero. Every time he tried to cut power to the gundam, the command met with error and Wing Zero shut out the scientist's computer after several attempts. Heero calmly stood behind scientist and watched both the instruments and Wing Zero.
'Zero. This is unlike you, what are you trying to do?'
A maintenance crew desperately grabbed a hold of the railings with each shake seemingly worse than the last. Duo and Quatre slowly made their way down the catwalk as they held onto the rails; not wanting to fall. They had almost made it to the cockpit and were about to grab onto it.
"Cut the power. Damn it."
"I can't. The mobile suit has locked me out."
"That's just great." Duo sarcastically said.
"Duo, give me a hand!"
Quatre and Duo reached out and grabbed the top of the cockpit door. Just as they did though, Wing Zero thrashed forward and sent them crashing into the catwalk.
"What happened?"
"Got thrown back."
"Shit."
Heero saw them vainly attempt to get at the cockpit, but weren't very successful at it. He peered back the scientist who barely kept his seat in place.
"Vitals."
"Human brains can't function at this level for very long. If the system continues, he will die."
"More reason to pry that door open." Duo shouted as Quatre and him tried again.
"What was the point of this experiment, anyway?" Quatre grabbed onto the cockpit again and promptly got knocked off.
"I wanted to see if Zero would show anything to Alex." Heero leaned over the scientist and glared at the devices. "Didn't think this would happen though."
Wing Zero thrashed another time and sent some of the devices over the railing. Everyone, but Heero and the scientist, crashed into the railings and held on for dear life. As sudden as the thrashings began, Wing Zero stopped dead cold and the arms went to rest against the wall. Its legs stood firmly against the ground. A second later, the cockpit door slowly began to open.
"What the hell?"
"Quatre let's get going."
"Right." Duo and Quatre dashed over to the opening cockpit.
"The mobile suit shut itself down. There is nothing to explain it."
Heero looked at Wing Zero with almost a hint of confusion on his face.
'What was it Zero?'
Quatre and Duo hopped into the cockpit and reappeared with the unconscious Alex. Sensors covered his body and Duo was taking them off several at a time.
'What did he see?'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex was lying down on some grass; the grass was soft and seemed almost artificial, but it swayed against him with the wind. He opened his eyes and colony ceiling with its stretched arch.
'A colony? I thought I was on earth.'
He pulled himself into a sitting position and took a long look around him. The stuff around him seemed older than it should have; everything was modern and all, but everything seemed to be a version from over a decade ago.
'What the hell?'
After he dragged himself to a standing position, he saw a facility, a factory at first glance, to his left, and the place had the air of familiarity with it; Alex had no idea why. The facility beckoned him to walk toward it, and his body obeyed. He walked against his own will; no way to stop himself.
"Stop it!"
Alex got back control over his body and stared at the facility. His mind cleared itself out and the facility was the only thing left.
'Have I see this place before? I don't remember a building like it.'
As he stared, two people, one a grown man and a young child of four, frantically ran out of the building; the man did at least, with the boy being dragged along. They were running toward Alex, but didn't seem to notice him. Alex stared at the man closely and thought he had seen him before. Not sure where he knew the man from, though. The man stopped suddenly and looked back at the little boy along with the facility. He picked up the boy and held him in his arms; then proceeded to book even faster away from the facility. At that moment, Alex saw the face even better and knew who it was.
'Rio. He might be a few years younger than I remember, but that is Rio. The child must be me then.'
Alex cried with joy and ran toward his brother.
"Rio!"
He continued to run at Rio even though the man didn't react to his presence. Alex was within striking distance and tried to hug his brother; he found to his horror that he passed right through Rio. He stopped dead in his tracks and held his hands in front of his face.
'A dream. No, a memory.'
Alex couldn't get himself to move an inch as he looked at his hands.
'Zero succeeded in unlocking memories that were long lost. What else did it...'
A bright light shined from the gaps of Alex's fingers. He let his hands fall to his side as another horrific sight occurred in front of him.
An explosion erupted from the rooftop of the facility followed by several smaller explosions on the third floor of the building. A moment of silence fell over the place, and then the third floor completely exploded. A ripple effect followed, the second then the first floor exploded. The colony ground split open with cracks that fractured in all directions. The structure couldn't hold its own weight anymore, and the facility crumbled to the ground. Rubble flew everywhere, and some had missed Alex by inches.
After the initial explosions, Alex wasn't fazed by any of the events that happened in front of him.
'Ito was right. Rio did do it.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A blurred vision of people came to Alex, but couldn't identify them.
"Alex. Do you hear me?"
"Snap out of it."
"I think he is coming..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex couldn't believe his eyes as he stood at the entrance to Hilde's and Duo's junkyard. The things he had just seen were washed away at the sight of the junkyard.
'I'm back.'
He took a step forward and went through the entrance.
Suddenly, Alex found himself on a bombed out street. Buildings lay in ruins around him, and smoke fumed upward toward the colony sky.
'It can't be.'
Alex began to run as fast as he could manage. He finally came upon a smoldering wreck of mobile suit, a Leo. The mobile suit had a molten hole through its back.
'There is no way. It just can't be. Not that battle.'
His worst fear was very real as he saw two standing mobile suits; Icedig and Toteis.
"God no! Get the hell out of there!" Alex panicked and ran at the two mobile suits.
Toteis ignited its beam saber and jetted at Icedig. Icedig ignited its beam saber just in time to block the attack. Icedig tried to counter-attack, but Toteis blocked every effort made by Icedig. These efforts would prove even more useless against Toteis, as this enemy started its second wave of attacks.
"Retreat! Get Sandrock! Don't fight him!"
Toteis jumped off the ground and smashed Icedig in the torso with its leg. Icedig collapsed to the ground on its back, and the beam saber it held was flung out of hand. Toteis slowly approached Icedig again, but Icedig activated its shoulder thrusters; it got a good distance away. Icedig pulled out its gundanium sabre, and charged at Toteis at full speed.
"NO!"
Toteis flew toward Icedig, but at the last moment Toteis slid to its right. Icedig stopped its charge and turned its head to find the Toteis had gone off to. Volleys of missiles appeared out of nowhere and were headed toward Icedig. It thrusted backward and dodged the attack. More volleys of missiles came at it. Icedig dodged the missiles again, but nearly got hit. There was no sign of the unknown mobile suit, none whatsoever. Toteis smashed the back of Icedig and sent it reeling forward. The mobile suit crashed into a building, that somehow managed not to get damaged up to this point, and Icedig collapsed into the ground.
"Shit... Stop fighting!"
Alex was halfway to the battle, but he was nearly out of breath. He couldn't run, not anymore. Alex fell to his knees and put his hands on the pavement while he continued to watch the battle.
Icedig rose up again while it held its gundanium sabre in its right hand. Toteis was in sight, there was no mistake, and Icedig planned on taking out the suit. The building behind Icedig erupted in smoke as two blue mobile suit arms appeared and restrained it. The building gave out and it collapsed. Once the smoke settled, Flugtod had Icedig in its arms, and Icedig was helpless. The gundanium sabre fell to the ground and penetrated it, which left it standing up.
Alex got back up after a second wind kicked in and dashed off to stop the events in front of him. An old-fashioned army truck passed Alex along the way.
'Must get there.'
Icedig was forced to the ground with its head smashed into the pavement; only the cockpit wasn't touching the ground. The truck pulled up to the two mobile suits while Toteis stood a distance away as though on guard. Several men jumped out of the vehicle and raced over to cockpit of Icedig. Another moment passed, the pilot of Icedig was seized and dragged into the truck by the men.
Alex finally reached the area, but the truck drove off on him. He was too late to help himself. Alex wouldn't have able to catch the truck; it was gone.
Flugtod let go of the now pilot-less Icedig, and picked up the gundanium sabre as it stood back up. Toteis turned its attention back to Icedig and walked over to it. Flugtod left the area in the same direction as the truck had.
A black void engulfed the area around Alex.
"Why are you showing me this, Zero?"
No response.
"WHY!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'm telling you that he is in a coma. There is nothing I can do."
"Come on. You've got to do something."
"I can't. Only the patient can pull himself back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex was now in a place eerily familiar to him. He was in a hallway lined with cylinders filled with pinkish liquids. There was an object in each cylinder, some big and some small. Alex stepped closer toward one of the cylinders and saw what the object was, a human baby; umbilical cord and all, just without the mother. The cylinder also had a number at its base; this one happened to be 654.
'Why are these children numbered?'
He walked down the hall and saw more and more of the same.
'What the hell is this place?'
As Alex continued down the hallway he came upon a computerized door with a sign that said, Infant Care. Undeterred, Alex walked to the door and tried to walk through it like he had done with people. He banged his head against the door and fell onto the ground.
Alex raised one hand into the air. "Note. Must push something to see if its there next time. Don't use head." The arm collapsed to his side. After a few stunned moments, Alex got himself back up and he brushed off some dirt from his pants.
The door opened as he dusted off his pants. Alex looked up to see what had opened the door and his face went pale from the person he saw.
'Isn't that the man who... Wait... who is he?'
A man, that wore a black outfit, black trench coat, and a veil that covered his face, walked through the door. His arms at his side were perfectly still with step he took, and his hands had black gloves on. The man walked past Alex without a bit of care. Alex himself had chills come over him, and he could only keep an eye on him for a little while.
'Why is he doing here? What is this place?'
As Alex thought about the man, the door began to close.
'I almost forgot about the door.'
Alex charged at the door and leaped through the opening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Darkness. Nothing but darkness. Where am I going? I can't see. Shit. What's happening? I can't feel anything either. Shit. There are no more memories torturing me, but I can't see or feel anything. Was that price worth it? Yes... No.... It's never worth it. But, now my mind doesn't see any more memories. What the hell happened? It must been a shock to my system when I went into that room. Wait. Did I go into that room? If I did, then what did I see? I couldn't have gone in, but I remember running through the door. Wait. There is a sensation in my arm, but its not like I hit that door. That was my head that did that. This sensation actually feels real.'
Alex opened his eyes and a light shined down on him. He squinted and slowly the light dissipated to sooth the eyes rather than blind them. Alex turned his head and saw he was in a hospital issued bed surrounded by curtains. He saw that he had a traditional patient's gown. Alex pulled himself up into a sitting position, and tried to take in his surroundings. It was during the day, the sunlight from the other side of the curtains made that obvious, and it appeared he might have been on earth. His arm felt the same sensation right before he woke up, and he looked at it. There was a needle that slowly injected clear solution into his bloodstream. He yanked out the needle along with anything else that was attached to him.
"Is this another memory, or a disillusion of Zero's? No it feels too real."
A doctor opened one of the curtains and closed it behind him. He didn't look at Alex as he entered and looked at a clipboard with Alex's current medical information. He pulled a popsicle stick wrapped in paper and tore off the paper. The doctor looked up and saw Alex as he sat there.
"Good. You are awake."
"Have I been out long?"
"A week."
"Oh. Must have needed the rest."
"Open your mouth please."
Alex complied with the doctor's request and the doctor put the popsicle in his mouth. He put a little flashlight into his mouth as well. The doctor pulled out the popsicle and brought an odd looking device that was curved to a small round point. He put the device into Alex's right ear and looked through it.
"What's that for?"
"It's to make sure that your ears are clean and to check on a few others things."
"Ok."
"Turn your head this way."
Alex did as the doctor said again, and the doctor looked into his left ear. The doctor pulled it away again.
"Now for your eyes."
"What about my eyes."
The doctor put away the odd device and pulled an even stranger device that looked similar to the other except it curved outward from a viewing hole. "Just making sure that your eyes are good."
Alex opened his eyes as wide as possible and the doctor viewed each eye carefully. The doctor took away the device and let go of Alex.
"Well. I must say. You are just fine."
"Good. May I ask, what was being injected into me?"
"It's a mild painkiller."
"Painkiller? For what?"
"Those scars on your back. They are in such a place with the nervous system that laying on them would sting a lot. We decided to give you the painkiller so you wouldn't suffer as much when sleeping."
"Thanks. I guess."
Alex slid himself to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the ground. The doctor was about to leave when he remembered something.
"Oh yeah. Your clothes are in the closet on the other side of the curtain. I was told to tell you that you are to report in when you were first able to."
"Gotcha." Alex waved at the man. 'I'm definitely back in reality. Not even the Zero system is this cruel.'
-Author Notes-
Alright, I'm back on the writing track. I should be back to writing fully soon... I hope.