Chapter 12
As soon as Zechs saw that the Wing Zero was approaching, he throttled forward to meet the Gundam. It was time...
Without preamble, the Wing Zero leveled its twin buster rifle at the Epyon and fired at half-power. The Eypon flew right through the incoming beams of energy and decelerated as it approached the Wing Zero.
"There are conditions for the creation of ultimate peace. First, the disposal of all weapons. Further, taking from people their desire to fight!" Zechs said as he flew away, drawing Heero closer to the Libra.
Heero responded by firing his rifle at the Eypon again.
"The Libra will be dropped. It is the only way left towards peace," Zechs told him, calmer now.
Heero glared at Zechs, anger burning in his eyes. "The people who've lost Earth will hate you. The colonists will be dependent upon you! While you're alive, the same mistakes will continue to be repeated!"
Zechs smiled to himself.
The Eypon's whip flew toward the Zero and wrapped around the Zero's buster rifle. With a quick yank, the powerful weapon flew from the Zero's hand. Zechs smiled again, but it was more of a smirk.
Noin watched the ensuing close-combat battle with an emotionless expression on her face. She felt as if her heart had turned to ice.
"Zechs plans to die here. He doesn't want a legendary end. He plans to take all of the sins of humanity and cleanse them! Heero should know this... he should..." Noin bowed her head. "Oh, Zechs..."
Inside the Mobile Doll control room, Trowa was busy cutting the wires to the mobile doll control system, while Dorothy knelt in the middle of the room, her head bent away from the third Gundam pilot.
"While fighting, I slowly destroyed my heart. That's why my heart has been dead for so long. Perhaps I have no worth as a human, but I have to stay alive." Trowa picked up a packet of wires and slit through them with a knife. Icons representing the mobile dolls slowly disappeared from the viewscreens as Trowa destroyed the system.
Dorothy raised her head, her blue eyes staring into the darkness of the room. "What reason do you have to live?"
"Because I have a home to go to."
Dorothy stifled a sob. "Unlike you, I... don't have a home to go to anymore..." Dorothy bowed her head, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
Trowa walked over to Quatre, who was now conscious and fighting the pain that kept arcing through his body. "Can you stand up, Quatre?"
Quatre looked up at his best friend. "Tr..Trowa.. Please... Don't worry about me. Take care of her." He grimaced as Trowa took his arm.
"Don't worry. She can take care of herself." Trowa helped Quatre to his feet. Quatre leaned heavily on Trowa's shoulder, gritting his teeth against the pain.
Quatre nodded slightly. "You're right."
Dorothy remained silent as the two boys floated toward the door. Her helmet drifted by her and she grabbed it, holding it against her chest. Trowa and Quatre stopped in the doorway and turned to look back at her. She glanced up, surprised. She had expected them to leave the room without another word.
"You ought to hurry." Trowa nodded to her, standing in the light streaming from the hallway.
"Please, you have to survive this," Quatre said.
Then, the two boys stepped fully into the hallway and the door closed. Dorothy stared at the door for a moment, still seeing the boys standing there, looking at her with compassion in their eyes. She hugged her helmet to her chest and cried, feeling the cold emptiness of the room around her.
Duo scanned his radar screen, then looked at his viewscreen to make sure he was right. The mobile dolls around him blended in with the space debris according to his radar, and he realized why.
"Hey! They stopped moving," Duo said softly, confused. The Deathscythe flew up to one of the mobile dolls and tapped it on the head with a clenched fist. The fist bounced off with a resounding thunk. "Anyone home? Guess not."
Suddenly, the familiar face of the third pilot popped up on his comm screen.
"Trowa!" Duo exclaimed with a huge grin.
"Mission accomplished. Returning now." Trowa nodded to Duo.
"Roger! How about Quatre?" Duo asked.
"I'm ok..." Quatre's voice sounded weak. He looked about as bad as he sounded too. Duo wondered what had happened to him.
"Have either of you seen Arys or Heero?"
Both pilots shook their heads.
"I'm here." Arys looked as bad as Quatre when her image showed up on the comm screens of the other pilots.
"Arys?" Quatre forgot about his injury for a moment when he saw Arys' pale face. "What happened?"
"I've got a bullet buried in my shoulder. I can't get it out by myself. When this battle's over, I'm going to need someone to dig it out for me," Arys' voice was soft, and her eyes were slightly glazed over. Duo realized that she had lost a lot of blood and was probably feeling light-headed even though she couldn't feel the pain from her injury.
Duo made a face. "Well, I think we'll leave that to Heero. Are you sure you can make it through this?"
"I can't feel the pain, Duo. I'll be fine." Arys' eyes temporarily lost their blank look. She leaned forward, an inner fire burning in her gray eyes. "We have to finish this."
Duo nodded. "Right. If we live through this, we'll celebrate with some expensive champagne."
"That sounds great... as long as its non-alcoholic," Quatre replied with a weak chuckle.
"Lt. Comm. Noin! Lt. Comm. Noin! This is MO-2! Please reply! Lt. Comm. Noin! Lt. Comm. Noin!" The comm operator kept repeating in the background.
Sally glanced at Lady Une curiously. "Why are you attempting to communicate with her?"
"You'll see presently." Lady Une bent down next to where Sally sat at one of the consoles.
"Colonel! Communications established!"
Noin's face appeared on the main viewscreen. She saluted smartly. "It's been some time, Colonel."
"Are you monitoring Heero and Zechs's battle?" Lady Une straightened up and walked forward until she stood in the middle of the rows of consoles in the command center.
"Yes." Noin had a suspicious look in her eyes that only Lady Une could see.
"Transmit what you're seeing to us through a direct line." Lady Une hoped Noin would listen to reason.
Noin remained impassive. "I'm not a member of Oz anymore. I won't take your orders any longer."
Lady Une smiled. It was a foreign expression, but it softened the hard lines that had permanently set into her face. "This isn't an order. This is a favor asked from someone who also desires peace."
Noin pondered Lady Une's words for a moment then nodded. "Roger." She reached off-screen.
Insantly, Noin's face vanished off the main screen and images of the Wing Zero and Eypon replaced it. The MO-II crew watched as the two clashed with their beam sabers. Lady Une waved to the comm operator.
"Broadcast this to the entire Earth sphere."
"Yes, Colonel." The comm operator flicked a switch on his console and pushed the transmit button.
The battle scenes went out to the Earth, the colonies, and any ships flying through the area. Lady Une walked over to the comm operator and picked up the mike he was holding.
"This battle doesn't hold any meaning for those on the colonies or the earth but this is a battle which MUST be fought because this is a battle on the parts of both to protect the colonies. AC 195... The curtain endeavors to fall upon the history of wars; but these two MUST fight or peace will not be accomplished. Do you feel it? The grief of this fight? Do you see it? The peace that extends behind this? This is the enigma of peace which must be addressed by everyone!" Lady Une spoke with authority and Relena stared at her with growing respect.
Relena bowed her head.
The professors were frantically trying to set off the propulsion system to create thrust in the ship's dead engines. Doctor J was hunched over on the ground, leaning against the propulsion room's control console as he fiddled with a few wires underneath it. He looked up at his fellow scientists with a frown.
"It can't be altered with the usual methods." He sat back and glared at the mess of wires in front of him.
Professor G hunkered down beside him. "Then we have to extract the boiler limiter on the propulsion cylinder."
Doctor J grinned widely, the fingers of his claw snapping against each other in anticipation. "You create an uncontrolled reaction to prevent one? That's one of my favourite tactics!"
Professor G stood to his feet as Doctor J performed what Professor G had suggested. Then, they both began tapping buttons on the console. The doctors heard a slight movement behind them. The sound of boots clinking on the metal walkway. The click of a safety being flicked off.
"No one move, please." Quinze's voice was quiet, deadly.
Doctor J turned around. "Quinze, long time no see."
Quinze fired a single shot. The bullet hit Doctor J in the arm. The scientist fell to his knees, gripping his arm. Apparently, Quinze did not want to kill them just yet.
"I told you not to move," Quinze said as he took one step forward.
"Kill us, that suits us fine. Our work is finished." Doctor J ignored the pain in his arm and staggered back to his feet.
"You people have caused me a great deal of trouble. How many times will you interfere with Operation Meteor before you're finally satisfied?"
"The Gundams were to avenge Heero Yuy, both then and this time," Doctor J replied.
"If you hadn't modified the mission instructions for the pilots, humanity would have understood it sooner!" Quinze was beginning to lose his temper.
"True... but we think the earth and humanity are more worthwhile!" Doctor J exclaimed, about to lose his temper as well.
"Shut up!" Quinze's hand tightened around his gun.
"Looks like you'll have to allow us our interference one more time." Professor G reached behind him and pressed one button on the control console.
With a cool look, Quinze fired. And a ball of flame devoured the Peacemillion's propulsion room.
Zechs zoomed forward, ramming into the chest of the Zero. Heero pulled back, struggling to get the Epyon off the Zero.
"You and Trieze are identical. You destroy justice to protect the weak but you can't save them that way in the end!" Heero shouted.
"The weak are created by the powerful! Because the earth was powerful, it made the colonies their servants and dominated them!" Zechs thumbed a button on his controls.
The Eypon, with a powerful upward thrust of its beam saber, disarmed the Zero, sending the Zero's beam saber whirling off. Zechs triumphantly arced the Eypon's beam saber to point at the Zero's head.
"There! The contest is mine," Zechs said.
Heero's eyes were impassive as he studied Zechs' image on his viewscreen. "I've always detested weaklings. Always worrying over when the next struggle would come, never trusting anyone, never saying what they wanted to say. I could never forgive them..."
Beneath the Gundam's feet, the Libra rocked as part of it exploded into space in a pillar of fire. Heero and Zechs did not seem to notice the blast, while Noin did.
"Oh, no!" Noin's Taurus floated away from the Libra. Zechs glanced at his viewscreen to see Noin's suit drifting away.
Heero recovered his beam saber while Zechs was distracted by Noin. He swung his beam saber and pointed it at the Eypon's head. The Eypon stopped in its tracks, its eyes flashing.
"All of humanity is weak. You and I are weak!" Heero shouted, waiting for Zechs to make the next move.
"Peacemillion and Libra are moving away from the earth," The screen operator stated with a sigh of relief.
Lady Une smiled as people began to pat each other on the shoulders. She watched the Libra begin to move out of Earth's orbit. Sally turned to say something to Lady Une, distracting her from the viewscreen. Lady Une did not see that one of the portions of Libra was continuing its descent into Earth's atmosphere.
"No! A portion of the Libra is still falling!" The screen operator frantically tapped his console as he tried to get a closer image of the block.
"What!" Lady Une whirled around from Sally to glance at the viewscreen again.
The comm operator put a hand to his ear in surprise. "A transmission has been received from the colony representatives!" He tapped his console and static flickered over the comm system.
"We, the colony representatives have come to a decision regarding the surrender of the earth! We of the colonies request that White Fang change their demands. For many reasons, we strongly desire to co-exist with the nations of the earth. A cessation of hostilities is declared and we hope that the nations of the earth will follow suit. Our ambiguous decisions and behaviour have greatly perturbed many people and for this we apologize deeply."
"It's one of the colony leaders!" The comm operator exclaimed.
Sally stepped forward, standing beside Lady Une. "At last, we have taken the first step toward peace."
Lady Une did not look encouraged. She pointedly glanced at the viewscreen. "But the Libra is still falling."
Arys throttled forward along with the other Gundams. The broken-off portion of Libra would reach the Earth's atmosphere in only a few minutes. She did not know how the four of them were going to get to the chunk in time, much less destroy it. Suddenly, the world seemed to fade to gray around her, and Arys shook her head, trying to clear it. She was still losing blood. She did not know how long she would last before she could get to a medbay. Heero was the only one who could end this war and she had no idea where he was.
"Where are you, Heero?" She whispered.
Duo was watching the falling portion of Libra with an angry look on his face. He seemed to blame the chunk for its descent. "We need more time!"
Quatre spoke up. "We have to demolish part of that block to diminish the devastation on earth!"
"It will be difficult." Trowa's controlled voice came over the comm.
Arys glanced at each Gundam pilot on her comm screen. "But we have to try..." The viewscreen seemed to shimmer surreally.
As her vision began to blur again, Arys realized that she needed something to keep her from falling unconscious.
Arys hesitated when the thought came to her. But it was true. Using the Zero System would give her the strength to make it through until the end came, whether that end was life or death. Arys pushed the button to activate the Zero System. The viewscreens around her glowed yellow-gold,and Arys sighed as she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the color of her eyes matched the viewscreens. She tried to relax as her emotions drained from her, but they came flooding back to her along with echoes of another presence. A familiar presence. Arys blinked in confusion.
"Heero?"
Apparently, linking was a permanent thing. She could feel him even though they had not established a connection during the battle.
"Arys? What are you doing?" Duo sounded worried. The eerie yellow glow of her eyes made him nervous.
"It's all right, Duo," Arys said. "I needed some help."
Duo could not understand how the Zero System could "help" anybody, but then he remembered that Arys had practically lived with the system for years. If anyone could handle it, Arys could.
"All right, Arys, but if you go crazy, we're going to have to shoot you," Duo said, trying to lighten the moment.
Arys made no comment.
The Altron suddenly appeared amongst them and then passed them by with a blast from its engines. The four other Gundam pilots were shocked to see the Chinese pilot show up.
"Wufei!" Trowa said.
Then, they saw what Wufei was carrying. It was the Zero's buster rifle.
Heero glared at Zechs as he held the Zero's beam saber at the Eypon's throat. "It's finished, Zechs."
"No, not yet." Zechs looked nothing like a defeated enemy.
The Eypon flicked its whip at the hull of the Libra and gouged a hole into it. With a leap, the Eypon dropped into the hole and inside the space fortress.
"I won't accept that I'm the weak one!" Heero heard Zechs say as he disappeared. Heero pulled back on his flightsticks and the Zero leaped in after the Eypon.
"This is bad." Howard was studying the block's schematic on a console screen.
"The propulsion system?" Sally walked over to where Howard was sitting.
Howard pointed a finger at the blinking red dot within the block of the Libra. "It's still attached of course. Even with a single block, the world will plummet into an endless winter!"
One of the OZ crewmembers touched his earpiece. "Gundams 02, 03, 04, 05, and..." Here, he paused. "...an unidentified Gundam..."
"Yes?" Lady Une came over to his station.
"They've infiltrated Libra's A block."
Relena stepped forward. "Isn't that where Heero and my brother are?"
"Are they going to hold their cards until the last hand is played?" Lady Une asked softly as Libra's A block continued to fall.
"The colonies have chosen their path towards peace freely. Your actions are meaningless!" Heero toggled to his machine cannons and fired them at the Eypon.
The Eypon flew forward and slammed into the Zero, knocking it backwards and through the wall behind it. The Zero continued firing its machine cannons, forcing the Eypon to leap upwards toward the ceiling.
"I was born to lead a life drenched with blood. It's too late to evade those sins. Let's finish this now, Heero!"
The two Gundams faced each other like knights with their swords raised for a charge. Heero stared down at Zechs' image on his comm screen sadly.
"You ought to be seeing your future!"
The Zero and Epyon stood across from each other. The expanse of the hallway seemed to shrink. The Zero's eyes flashed green along with the Epyon's. The two warriors flew toward each other at great speed. Both mobile suits raised their sabers to strike. The sound of scraping metal echoed throughout the hallway. The Zero and Epyon landed in crouched positions on opposite sides. Heero stared into the blackness at the end of the hallway. Zechs did the same. The Zero stood erect and looked over his shoulder at the Epyon. It was still crouching. Heero saw the Epyon's head look down. With a loud clank, the Epyon's left arm fell to the floor. The sound reverberated for what seemed like an eternity.
Zechs looked down and closed his eyes. He heard the Zero's footsteps coming toward him.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Zechs finally spoke.
Heero remained silent. Why had he let Zechs live? Perhaps it was that long-buried compassion he had told Arys about. It seemed like ages ago that he had spoken to her about their past memories. He had been fighting and killing for so long. It was time for the killing to end.
"Heero?" Quatre's visage popped up on Heero's comm screen. The fourth pilot looked drained, but other than that, he seemed fine.
"What is it, Quatre." Heero's voice was monotonic as it usually was, but inside, he was glad to see that the Arabian boy was still alive.
"Thank God I've finally found you! This block is still plummeting towards the earth!" Quatre sounded frantic.
Heero clamped his hands around the controls of his Gundam. "Understood... I'll annihilate the propulsion system."
The Zero blasted down the corridor toward the block's propulsion system, leaving a defeated Zechs behind.
Duo wildly swung the Deathscythe around, trying to take out as much of the corridor around him with each swipe from the blade of his scythe. "Before this chunk falls to the earth, we'll chop it into little pieces!"
He slammed the scythe into the ground below his feet, gouging a hole in the floor.
Trowa shot his double gatling gun into the walls of another corridor far away from Duo, shredding them to pieces. "Never forfeit hope until the finale. That's what I learned piloting the Heavyarms."
Arys fired the Archangel's Shiv rifle at the ceiling, dropping shrapnel into piles around her. She pulled out her beam saber and began slicing into the walls, reducing them to ribbons of steel. As a last-ditch effort, she powered up her beam emitters. Putting the Archangel's hands together, she fired off a large blast. The hallway shuddered. "This is our way of redeeming ourselves for the trouble we caused in this war."
Quatre bowed his head as a jolt of pain shook him, but he raised his head, fighting it off. "Our chances of success are almost nil... but it's better than not doing anything!"
An explosion nearby rocked the Sandrock and Quatre struggled to keep the Gundam upright. A mobile suit caught the Gundam, keeping it from falling.