Wings of Destruction
Chapter 15
Resting in Peace
Uno saddled up the bike the moment it had returned to the cabin and doubled checked the guns that were stored in the pockets. She knew she didn't want to be caught without another weapon in case of another drive by shooting. She could do without being shot at again.
When she returned to the cabin living room for the final bag Justin had stepped up to her.
"Where are you going?" He folded his arms across his chest. Uno raised her head and glared at him through narrow slits.
"I have some things I have to do," she growled back then turned her tone to one of sarcasm. "Don't worry," she turned her back to him and proceeded to the door. "I won't be gone for long."
She returned to the other cabin with a few bags packed up in her possession. Carrying the items were a drag to begin with and stuffing them into the empty bags she brought on her bike from the cabin were even worse. She'd seen a few strange faces staring at her as she stuffed sandwich meat and the likes into her backpack, heard muttering when she stuffed bread into the other bag on the side of the bike, and received bad looks from the passerby's who watched her stuff jars in with them.
She turned around and glared a few of the faces in return before seating herself back on the bike and roaring it to life. When she left she made she sure she revved it loud enough to disturbed their minds and kicked up dirt to their faces. If anyone was going to insult her with looks for no reason she'd fight back; but at the same time, if anyone were going to insult her with looks to begin with she'd fight back. She hated people who hated her for no reason.
The drive back to the cabin was cool and refreshing. She had almost forgot what it felt like to drive a bike, as the last thing she remembered was driving the van then getting shot up at, forcing herself to stay awake until she made it to the rest of the team, and drag her feet over to let them know they're in danger.
She wrapped the bags around her body and hiked towards the door. Upon entry a dark stench rose to her nostrils. Cringing in disgust, she made her entry and kicked the door shut behind her. A faint figure in the dim lighting near the fireplace had looked up at her.
"Damn Zechs," Uno muttered and retreated to the kitchen to set everything down on the countertops. "It smells like something died in here."
"I almost had," he replied before pulling himself to a standing position. "I was wondering what had happened to you."
She avoided eye contact as she began unpacking the bags and setting the food out. "I bought enough sandwich stuff to last you the rest of the month. I don't know where I'll be but everyone's training so I know I'll be going in for repairs to Angel soon. Thank God I trained for four months before they showed up."
She turned around and set the items she had bought into the mini fridge in the corner of the kitchen and kept to herself. She crouched down, her black marine pants and black tank top shielding her away from any visible confrontation about her whereabouts.
"Uno," Zechs began as he stepped into the kitchen, leaning heavily on his cane. "Why are you avoiding me?"
"Also," she spoke up, ignoring his question. She removed some moldy cheese and sour meat from the fridge and tossed it up onto the counter. "I brought you some candy—figured the old man could use some fresh sweets."
"Uno look at me!" Uno froze. The last time she heard his strict voice she was friends with Theresa and he was her teacher, years ago, in a school that had since been forgotten, in a city that had long been abandoned.
Slowly, she turned around to gaze at his wrinkled and scarred face, his long white hair, his dirty complexion. She knew he could see the shock in her eyes, knew he could feel the tension in her body from explaining her whereabouts. Finding another lie rising to her lips, she spun back around to shut the fridge and got to her feet.
"I also got you shampoo and soap," she said as she removed the last items from her bag.
"Uno, where have you been?" It was more of a demand rather than a question. She bit the bottom of her lip; Zechs had been like a father to her all her life.
"Sleeping," she replied truthfully. Well, it wasn't the full truth but it was part of it. She zipped up the bags then heard him stamp his cane down. She turned to him and saw him blocking the entire door to exit the kitchen and knew he wasn't going to make this easy on her.
"The truth," he growled.
"That is the truth!" She snapped back. Uno slammed her arms to the sides of her body in retaliation.
"I took Mandy to the scientist for whatever reason she had and on the way back there was a drive by shooting!" Uno finally roared out. "She was just fine and dandy—though she blacked out from being too active—while I got shot up to make like I was a target board! I barely hung on to consciousness as I slammed the van into the other car, as I drove back to the cabin, and tumbled inside the doors."
"You mean you were reckless and weren't watching out for yourself," Zech corrected her. Uno's head snapped away from his, her gaze tearing away from his intense eyes. She felt her own beginning to blur with fresh tears.
"I'm not as angry with you about not trying to contact me as I am with you not realizing the danger of your position," Zechs explained softly. He heard a soft sniffle in return and relaxed his lean upon the cane.
"Since you were little Synodd has been trying to kill you. They killed Theresa in place of you, they tried to kill Heero, and they even had managed to brainwash and manipulate Ricky into making him think he had to kill himself if he couldn't kill you."
Uno shut her eyes as a tear fell down her face. Zechs's voice softened even more until it was almost a whisper. "I was worried for you because I know how badly Daniel wants you dead. He knows you'll fight back, knows you're expecting a way to break out."
"He knows he pissed me off in the past," Uno muttered and turned to Zechs, showing her tear-stained face. "Damn him and Synodd to Hell."
Zechs stifled a smile. "That surely sounds something like Duo's little girl would say."
Her eyes narrowed. "Zechs, as much as I'd like to say I'm Shinimegami, I realized that I'm more of Heero." She pushed away from the counter and proceeded to leave the kitchen.
"I know," he replied softly and she froze in spot. She turned and looked up at him, fear etched in her eyes. "You act just like him—I think it was the scientists that had done that to you, though Professor G had Duo as his pupil and you rarely act like him."
She stifled a smirk and with a shrug, she responded with, "Well, Heero never had the sense of humor I use when I talk. He was always all monotoned and basic, like a program set to kill and not to smile." She continued walking into the living room and sensed Zechs turning around to watch her.
"You miss them," he muttered as he watched her collapse onto the couch. "I can see it."
"Yeah," she grumbled and placed her hands on her face. "But I'm not Duo's little girl. I'm Sarah's… I'm Uno Cleaver more than I am Uno Maxwell."
Zechs returned to his chair across from her and watched her stare at the ground in earnest. "I miss them," she had murmured, feeling herself wanting to cry. She wrapped her arms around her body. "I miss all of them, not just the ex pilots."
Zechs lowered his gaze to the floor. "I mean," she continued, "You all fought Oz, Romefeller, White Fang, Mareimaia—you know what to expect in a war."
"I know," he shuttered out after taking in a deep breath. And indeed he did; it bred people like himself, people who joined sides with the enemy just for revenge upon his original home.
It bred people like Uno, who was born from a war, during a war, and lived in ignorance to have nothing but a life of war. Out of everyone he's ever known—himself, Treize, the five boys who had fought to defend the colonies—she was the only one who never had a life of peace. Even Heero had some peace once, whether it was assignments or an actual vacation as he never really enjoyed anything but his work.
"I just wish they were still alive," she muttered, feeling the tears falling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin. "Even Relena… she at least was there for me when Hildie wasn't, to help me when Hildie couldn't, to teach me what everyone else wasn't, about war."
Zechs nodded. "She knew so much, lived so long, and died so horribly."
"Yeah," Uno muttered. "And I could have helped but I was too devastated to do anything but mourn for a life I was losing. God," she groaned out, "if I could relive even those few days as a child with my family again, I would. I took it all for granted, expecting to always been with Duo, to always had him look over me. But now he's dead and gone and it's because I didn't snap out of my dream until it was too late, until I opened the door after hearing gunshots and kicked some soldier's ass."
"When are the Gundams to be finished?" Zechs had asked to simply change topics. Uno sniffled again and raised her head to glance at him.
"Mandy returns tonight then Vincent's got training next," she sighed and sat back against the seat cushions. "After that, we receive our list of mecha units and decide on what changes we want, and then the battles begin."
Zechs scoffed, "At least you get to decide upon your creations. No body else had that chance."
A grin came to her lips. "They don't have much to change but I couldn't decide which Gundam to base Angel off of so I simply took all five into account—even more."
Zechs glanced at her strangely. "Uno?"
"Hey," she shrugged her shoulders and hooked her hands behind the back of her head, her arms and elbows in the air on the sides, "what can I say… I've gotta' make sure it's operating perfect."
"What control unit did you pick?"
"When they tested be against Zero they noticed I did just fine—Zero tried to take over my mind but it didn't phase me one bit. I just looked at it like it was a friend, reminded me of when I hacked into Heero's laptop." She smiled. "Then they tried with the Tallgeese and besides the speed I had to get used to, it were simple." Zechs' mouth dropped but when she continued he wanted to go back in time and yank Treize to this new age and show him what they had created, the perfect child that had been bred from their battles.
"Epyon hated me and kept trying to take over my mind. It had me following every target as the enemy until I saw nothing more than Duo, Heero, you—and everyone else. And then when I tried to scream at it, tell it to stop, I saw my mother and my father and the world crashed." Uno took a deep breath. "When I gained my senses back up, I started to fight and the second it tossed Duo's image to my face I screamed out to have it stop and I starting manipulating the senses rather than let it affect me."
Zech's mouth dropped and his eyes widened. "You what?"
Uno shrugged her shoulders and glanced away. "I changed the system, told it who was boss. It tried to show me that I had no future and I told it I decided what my future became of, where I wanted to go in my life." He stared at her in total shock as her voice lowered to a whisper, her eyes set upon the boarded up windows to the right.
"It's my life to decide for what I do with it."