Mobile Suit: Generation

Walk on Water

"Can you even see what you're fighting for?

Bloodlust and a holy war

Listen up, hear the patriots shout

"Times are changing"

In the end, the choice was clear

Take a shot in the face of fear

Fist up in the fiery light

Times are changing"

-Walk on Water by 30 Seconds to Mars

Relena's driver had insisted on taking her to pick up the children from school. As she sat in the backseat, wringing her hands together, she knew he was right. Relena was far too agitated to safely drive herself to the school. When the black limousine pulled up in front of the school, Relena could see through the window that students were pouring from the front doors. There were cars lined up all along the block, waiting for their children. Through the crowd, Relena spotted her niece and nephew, who towered over the rest of the students with the height they inherited from her brother.

Relena rolled down the window and waved to Naina and Milou. They saw her and moved through the crowd. Trailing behind was Marina. The children reached the car, and Relena opened the door from the inside. The three of them slid onto the bench seat, one after another, until Marina closed the door behind her.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Relena said, hugging all three of them at once. Beneath her hold, she could feel her daughter stiffen.

"We were worried about you, too, Aunt Lena," Naina said. Relena gave the girl a smile.

"I'm grateful that I wasn't at the ESUN building today, that's for sure. But we don't know yet the toll that this attack has taken," she said, sitting back in her seat.

"What are the Preventers gonna do?" Marina asked, leaning forward slightly in her seat. Relena shook her head.

"I don't know yet. Right now, they're operating under the assumption that the Preventer tower will be next."

Marina's eyes glimmered with excitement. Relena frowned at her daughter, wondering where this lust for excitement came from. Relena had become aware of this fact about her daughter only recently, and still wasn't sure how to curb the girl's fascination with war. After all, Relena had never been able to sway Dorothy from her obsession. Relena knew she would have to get Heero involved, but she wasn't ready yet. She wanted to try and tackle this issue on her own.

The ride to the Darlian-Yuy residence passed in relative silence. Relena clutched her phone in her hand, waiting for any updates, but Heero had not contacted her yet. She knew the Preventers called in their best agents, but so far, she had no idea what their plan was.

At last home, Relena ushered the children down into the basement of the home, where Heero had specifically built a secure shelter for these kinds of instances. The small household staff was already there, huddled together.

Pagan's granddaughter and head of Relena's household, Mary, stepped forward, her hands wringing together.

"What's happening?" she asked. "We came down here as soon as we heard about the attack."

"I don't know," Relena said, frowning, glancing at the children behind her as they settled onto the couches set up in one corner of the shelter. Marina met her mother's eyes briefly, before sitting down beside her cousins and pulling out her phone.

Heero stood in the shelter command center, deep below the Preventer building. He leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. The team was mobilizing. Sally and Wufei were on their way back from their mission in the northern part of the continent, Quatre was on his way to Brussels, and the rest of them were already here. He glanced around at Duo, Trowa, Zechs and Une. Their faces were all grave. Even Duo's.

In his pocket, his phone chirped. He pulled the device out and checked. It was Relena.

Children and I are safe at home. What's going on?

Heero pressed his lips together. He wished he had something to tell her.

Good. Not sure yet. Une has not been forthcoming.

"Where's Noin?" Zechs asked Une, who was still pacing in front of the room. She raised an eyebrow.

"I would have assumed you knew," Une said. "She wasn't at Zero-Seven with you?"

"No, I thought she was with you."

The room tensed. Zechs jammed his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone. He tried her number.

"Straight to voicemail," he said, his voice dark. "She didn't go to the ESUN building today, did she?"

Une shook her head. She didn't know. Heero brought up Noin's Preventer calendar on his phone while Zechs began to pace. Sure enough, Noin had a meeting that morning at the ESUN tower. He glanced up at Zechs, but his words caught in his throat. After a moment, he finally spoke.

"She was at the tower this morning," Heero said, trying to keep his voice level. Zechs blew up, as Heero would have expected.

"I need to go find her," Zechs said, already heading for the door. Une called after him, but Zechs ignored her. Une sighed and looked to Trowa.

"Trowa, go with him. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," she said.

Hilde walked down the street, her sullen teenager, Duo Jr, trailing behind her. She could hear his feet scraping against the sidewalk as he barely lifted his feet from the ground. He'd been acting like this ever since she made him come with her to L2, after she decided to separate from Duo for a time. They were staying with some relatives of Hilde's, and she was stressed enough, trying not to be an imposition. And to have DJ acting like he was on top of it - she was liable to turn gray at any moment.

She glanced over her shoulder when she heard his footsteps stop. "DJ, come on. We need to get these errands done," she said. But her son was staring up at a screen mounted on the side of a building. In fact, the same thing was being broadcast all over the street, on all the buildings.

The ESUN tower was under attack.

Pedestrians in the streets all stopped walking to watch the terror play out on screen. Many had hands covering their mouths in shock and surprise. Hilde watched in horror as the top most part of the tower crumbled down into itself - the roof had already caved in. At any moment, the whole tower could collapse.

DJ grabbed her arm. "What if they attack Preventer?" he asked her, tugging on her arm.

"Une will have already evacuated the building," Hilde said in an attempt to reassure him. More than likely, Duo would be hanging out at Zero-Seven with the others. But she didn't know his schedule anymore. Duo was far from a creature of habit.

"Mom, we need to go back to Earth," he said, tugging on her again. She pulled her arm away and stared at her son, his tousled brown hair covering his eyes. It was strange to see Duo inside her son, especially without the braid.

"Even if shuttles are going to Earth, they definitely won't be going to Brussels right now," Hilde said. "They've probably shut down all travel until they figure out what's going on."

"But what about dad?" DJ asked. Hilde pressed her lips into a line. She didn't think she could handle this argument from her son, again.

"Dad will be fine," she said, hoping she wasn't lying. "Une will make sure he stays out of trouble."

DJ rolled his eyes.

"Une is going to put him right in the middle of trouble! Only you can keep him out of trouble," DJ said. "We should all be together… as a family."

Hilde closed her eyes and turned away from DJ. She looked back up at the screen, at the devastation playing out on Earth. She wasn't sure she was ready to face Duo yet. She knew he wouldn't change, and she didn't know if she could deal with him anymore. Was it right to keep her son away from his father? She had to think of her own happiness as well.

Besides, she hadn't stolen a shuttle in years.

Quatre and Katherine were enroute to Brussels in their semi-illegal shuttle pod prototype when the tower fell.

They watched on a small screen on the dashboard, as the tower buckled under the weight of itself and collapsed to the ground. An enormous cloud of smoke and debris rose up, clouding the city in grey and brown. The smoke was so thick, it was hard for the cameras to see through to the destruction the collapse left in its wake. The death toll calculator in the bottom corner of the screen was in the hundreds, but Quatre knew that number would be in the thousands before the day was over.

The only relief is that the mysterious weapons had disappeared. It seemed that their objective was to take down the ESUN tower, and leave the Preventer tower alone. Quatre was grateful, but that didn't mean they wouldn't come back. He hoped that when he arrived in Brussels, Une and the others would have some information to pass on about what the heck was going on.

"Such needless violence," Katherine said, watching the screen. Quatre frowned deeply and nodded.

"We haven't seen this kind of violence since… well… since the wars," he said. Katherine gave him a sympathetic look. Quatre had told her the stories of the wars, what Quatre had lost and what had been taken from him. But she also knew how he changed and grew from the experiences. And Quatre knew that Katherine would grow and change as well.

Finally reaching Brussels, Quatre landed on the tarmac. Of course, a contingent of ESUN Air Force and Brussels police converged on the pod. Quatre sighed, but motioned for Katherine to exit the pod.

Together, they climbed out of the pod and onto the tarmac. They were immediately surrounded at gunpoint. Both Katherine and Quatre raised their hands up.

"My name is Quatre Raberba Winner," he said. Some of the men lowered their guns. He reached, slowly, into his pocket and pulled out a wallet. From the wallet, he retrieved his ESUN identification card, his Preventer identification card, and his Winner Corporation identification card. A man stepped forward and took these items from him.

"Oh, Mister Winner," he said, accepting the ID and handing it back over. "I understand why you're here, but you have to know that piloting that thing is illegal, and the airspace above this region is closed."

"I'm aware," Quatre said. "But it's pertinent that I reach the Preventer headquarters." The man thought for a few moments, and finally stepped to the side. He motioned for the others to lower their guns.

"I'll let you go this time, Mister Winner, but next time, use the proper means of transportation," he said.

Quatre smiled and nodded. He pulled Katherine along beside him as they hurried to the terminal.

-SE