Ayashi no Yuugi II: The Last Sunrise

Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers apply.

Serenity Maxwell: All right! Glad to see that you're back and all caught up! As for Duo collapsing, he's the type of person who would worry himself sick over a certain person if he cares for them. Alexa and Kayla, or 08 and 07, as they were mostly referred to as in the previous chapter, where trying to infiltrate a very heavily fortified Nautilus base, and without any Gundams or MS. There is also the fact that the entire mission spanned almost two whole days, and Duo most likely spent all forty-eight hours worrying about his newly reborn friends, despite the fact that their immortal and not easily killed. Call it collapsing from exhaustion, if you will. As for Shinn and Duo, and the occasional resurfacing of the Duo persona, you'll soon find that 'The Braided Baka' as Wufei has so affectionately dubbed him, is never really as far away as many people believed.

Chapter 6: Descendant LX

Name: Shinn Asuka
Age: 21
Colony: L2 X97260
Description: Violet eyes, chestnut hair (usually in a braid)
Origin: America
Parents: Unknown

Basic Report:
Age 6, Enrolled in Spica Training Academy in 185 AC
Age 8, Graduation Exam, Gains Codename Duo in 187 AC
Age 9, Graduated from Spica Training Academy with Honors, Valedictorian; Enrollment Mission, Gains Codename Maxewell; Enrolled in Orion Tactical Graduate Academy in 188 AC
Age 11, Graduated from Orion Graduate Academy with Honors, Top Three; Enrollment Mission, Gains Codename Shinigami; Enrolled in Sagittarius Political University in 190 AC
Age 13, Graduated from Sagittarius University with Honors, Top Five as Admiral, First Class, Type Two Unlimited; Joins GTK; Began Training as Gundam Pilot 02 in 192
Age 16, End Training as Gundam Pilot 02; Begin Operation Meteor; Search for Kamui as Duo Maxwell and Shinigami begins in 195 AC
Age 20, Kamui Power retrieved in 199 AC

Current Status: Active (Emergancy Only); Attending to Mission in Preventors

XoXoXoXoXoXoX

March 15, 200 AC; 5:25 PM

Colony L2, Asuka Residence

"I'm getting much too old for this," Shinn moaned as he unlocked the door. They were just getting back from a barely successful mission.

They had spent two days investigating the death of the intern who had been sent to investigate the vandalism problem in North Vietnam, and then halfway through, they had to run off for a mission. There had been far too many complications and wrong information, resulting in not only a failed mission, but also serious physical injury to the ex-pilots. The young men were all far too exhausted to want to even think about it.

"You're hardly even twenty, baka." Wu Fei snapped at the braided male.

Shinn chuckled good-naturedly as they entered his home. "Home sweet home," he said lightly. "Anyone want something hot before I show them to their beds?"

"Please," Quatre replied as the others nodded.

Shinn grinned jauntily and dropped his duffle bag on the couch as he made his way to the kitchen.

Half an hour later, the ex-pilots had finished their tea and hot chocolate, and Shinn led the group upstairs to show them to their rooms.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

March 15, 200 AC; 6:48 PM

CSA Sanq Kingdom Headquarters

Admiral Hilde Shielbecker, Third Class, Type Four Unlimited, Commander of the Sanq Kingdom CSA Headquarters, bruised, cranky, and her arm still in a sling (She'd dislocated her shoulder while sparring against Kaze just the other day), snapped at one of her subordinates as she eyed the thick banks of dark clouds rolling toward the installation.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know, ma'am. The meteorological report is for sunny skies. There's no reports of any weather fronts in the area!"

"Then how do you explain THAT!" She waved her good arm at the black clouds.

Beneath the towering thunderheads, constantly illuminated from within by brilliant flashes of lightning, she could see the smeary film in the air that told her of torrential rains approaching.

Moments later, all hell broke loose and the equiptment began to malfunction and self destruct.

"The perimeter sensors are malfunctioning!"

"I'm not getting any readings on radar!"

The lights flickered.

"Primary power grid is down! Backup generators online!"

The lights flickered again.

"I can't contact the eastern guard posts!"

"Backup generators in sectors 1, 6, 10 are down!"

"We've lost contact with MST Fox-Tango-2!"

Admiral Hilde Shielbecker was not a happy woman.

The building shuddered and Hilde looked up at the ceiling, her eyes narrowed.

"Bring up the peripheral monitors! I want to know what the hell is going on!"

The monitors came to life to show several hundred MS flying toward them. The dozen or so in the lead were already opening fire on the base, which obviously explained the tremors running through the building.

Hilde snapped. "Issue a Condition Red!"

"Issuing Condition Red," one officer said as the klaxons began to wail. "Issuing Condition red."

"All personnel take class three battle stations."

"Beginning system wide link up."

"Multi-phase oscillation wave confirmed."

"System wide link up confirmed."

"Preparing to unfold Welle Shield!"

"Dispersing Reflecting Camouflage Cover."

"MST Fire-Bird-3, you are cleared for launch!"

"Fire-Fox- MDT Cleared for launch!"

"Docking Clamps for Type Three BattleShip Lancelot released."

"Camouflage dispersal completed, unfolding Welle Shield."

"Opening bay doors 3 and 9."

"Battleship Lancelot, you are cleared for liftoff."

"Where is the Strike Squad, Revermere?"

"Revermere is in Sector D9, Admiral."

"Send them to Sector C6."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

The building shuddered and Hilde's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Prepare the electron cannon!"

"We're not getting any response from Jaeger 7!"

"Loading electron cannon."

"Power up the Beam Rifle."

"We've lost contact with Sector G6!"

"Beam Rifle at twenty percent!"

"Wella Shield power is dropping!"

"Unfold the Secondary Wella Shield!"

"All F9 pilots please stand by!"

"Unfolding Secondary Wella Sield!"

"MST-Rembrant 7 has flat lined!"

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

March 16, 200 AC; 12:05 PM

Colony L2, Asuka Residence

Though everyone had gone to bed before what most considered evening, the house saw no activity come morning. Quatre awoke shortly after noon and decided to get up instead of lying in bed like he wanted to. Instead he got, grabbed his bag, and went to take a shower.

None of the pilots had suffered any broken bones or anything truly major, an absolute miracle considering how the mission had gone. Quatre suffered from a sprained wrist on his left hand, and his left shoulder had been dislocated; nothing permanent, the bone had easily gone back into the shoulder socket. He had three bruised ribs, and various cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over his body. He even had a small cut on his right ear where the first bullet had grazed him. That's when all the trouble had started. Quatre shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts, wanting to enjoy his shower, even if he had only one hand to wash with. The water was pleasantly warm, working magic on his sore muscles. I should leave some hot water for the others, though there is no telling when they will wake up. Quatre decided to indulge himself for a little while longer before finishing up and going downstairs.

Everybody's still asleep, but then it's been almost a full day's rest. He headed to the kitchen, intent on seeing what there was to eat, if there was anything to cook with. He blinked upon entering the kitchen. On the counter, under some netting, was plates of bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, bowls of oatmeal, porridge, treacle, jars of jelly and slabs of butter. The coffee maker had been set, and the pot was full. There was a kettle on the stove, already filled with water, ready to be heated. Beside everything was an open laptop, on which a screensaver reading 'Message from 02 to his guests' blinked from one part of the screen to another.

Wondering as to when Duo would have gotten up to set everything up, Quatre dissolved the screensaver to find a file on the desktop also labeled 'Message from 02 to his guests.' He opened the file to be met with Shinn's impassive face and blank eyes. From what the Arabian could see, he was wearing a suit similar to the one he had worn during the Nautilus Strike incident.

"/So you're all finally awake. Good. As you may have already noticed, I've prepared breakfast for you. I'm not expecting you to eat it all, just take what you like and put any leftovers in the fridge. The CSA Sanq Headquarters is under attack, and I've been called off to provide backup, so I'll probably be gone for a while. Feel free to use what ever you find in my house. There is only one catch, nothing is ever what it seems, and my house is no exception. There are some very dangerous things that I'm sitting on, by order of the Triad, so my suggestion is don't go into the cellar or the basement, no matter how curious you are. There may be a few other things scattered around my house that I haven't gotten around to securing, so if Quatre says don't touch, don't touch. If he says hide, hide, if he says—well, you get the idea. There is a shooting range in the attic and a state of the art computer system in the southeast corner of the garage, so have fun. Until new orders come in, make yourselves at home. Quatre, I'm putting my faith in you and your 'Space Heart', so keep the others safe and out of trouble, alright? 02 out./"

Quatre sighed. "Oh, Duo," he said sadly, "That Triad of yours are real slave drivers." He helped himself to some toast and porridge with a cup of coffee. He mused over Duo's words as he ate, and when he finished, he dropped off his dishes in the sink and went into the living room to write his report.

March 16, 200 AC; 12:05 PM

CSA Sanq Kingdom Headquarters

"/02! There are five MS coming at you from the left/"

Shinn spun his Gundam around, and fired the Vulcan guns, obliterating the enemy MS. His eyes were blank as he piloted the Descendant LX Gundam with ruthless efficiency. He grunted as he was thrown painfully against his safety harness, and he pushed a button, and his beam saber ripped through the cockpit of the Aries that had dared ram him.

March 16, 200 AC; 2:15 PM

Colony L2, Asuka Residence

Quatre had been sitting at his laptop working on the report for almost two hours, getting more frustrated with each passing quarter hour.

Trowa entered the living room in time to see the Arabian flop backwards onto the couch, muttering furiously about dismantling the 'Damn piece of crap.'

"Quatre?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

"Fine."

Trowa raised an eyebrow.

"So where is our good host this morning? Surely he's not still sleeping?"

"Nope. There's a laptop in the kitchen with a message for all of us. That Triad of his are real slave drivers, you know?"

March 16, 200 AC; 2:35 PM

CSA Sanq Kingdom Headquarters

Shinn glanced at his perimeter sensors and fired of another round from his rifle before he was thrown roughly against his harness. His eyes narrowed as this time, as the sensor beebed, signaling an enemy coming in from behind. The Gundam turned to face the enemy MS…

There was a sudden burning in his abdomen…

And everything went black…

XoXoX

Inside the headquarters, Hilde, busy trying to maintain control and keep her people alive, never noticed the destruction of her best friend's Gundam. Inside their cockpits, Alexa and Kayla watched in horror as the Gundam Descendant LX went up in flames.

"NOOOOO! SSSHHHHIIIIIINNNNNNN!"