Chapter 22: Safe and Sound
As their eyes readjusted to their surroundings after the blinding flash of the anomaly's exit, the Gundam pilots stared around warily, looking for any familiar landmark in the desolate space they had found themselves in.
Debris from the C.E. universe surrounded them, making each pilot question if they had really left.
"Are we home?" Trowa asked worriedly.
"Yeah we are! That's colony Y1958! It's the L2 cluster! We're really home!" Duo said excitedly as the Deathscythe Hell pointed towards the dark metallic mass nearby flecked with lights.
Quatre joined Duo in cheering, while the other three remained pleasantly silent as the Gundams flew towards the colony where, unknown to them, Relena and the Defence Council were overseeing the final stages of their replacement's simulation training sessions in their Gundams.
A soldier ran into the control room overlooking the simulation chamber. "Lady Relena!" He said urgently.
Everyone looked at him, which suddenly made him feel slightly uncomfortable.
"What is it?" Relena asked with a bit of snap in her tone.
His entrance reminded her all too clearly of the last time a soldier came to her urgently, and that time had almost brought down the ESUN's entire security structure.
It didn't help that the training had been putting a strain on everyone involved, and Relena wasn't in the mood to hear about any more bad news.
The soldier flinched in fear at her tone before deciding it was better to get his duty over with. "Our radars picked up a large amount of debris that suddenly appeared near the colony."
"What? Did something explode?" Milliardo asked worriedly. Dealing with the aftermath of an explosion was the last thing they needed at that moment.
The soldier shook his head. "It just suddenly appeared. However, the debris was masking other signals…" He hesitated to speak as the new pilots piped up, questioning whether they were going to have to fight.
"Tell us what's happening." Noin ordered, causing the soldier to jump in fear as Milliardo snapped at the new pilots to be silent.
"There were six signals among the debris that we were able to pick out. One of them matched the signature of the anomaly that appeared several months ago." Everyone stared at the soldier as he cleared his throat; expressions of guarded hope surrounded him as he continued.
In their Gundams, the new pilots wore mixtures of anticipation, annoyance, anger and worry as they listened carefully to hear what the other five signals were.
"The other signatures matched those of the Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron Gundams. However, we haven't been able to raise a response from them so we can't be certain if they're being piloted by Mr. Yuy, Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Barton, Mr. Winner and Mr. Wufei or if somebody else is." The soldier finished.
"Ma'am! We're getting a private transmission!" One of the operators in the room said in surprise.
"Let it through." Relena said as they gathered around him.
"Hello Y1958! I have no freakin' clue where this will end up being relayed to…" Duo's voice slipped into a mutter for a few moments. "Anyways, this is Duo Maxwell saying that the cavalry is home and wanting to chat to Relena or the Defence Council if they're anywhere in space! Could you please hook us up with them?"
Relena burst into laughter at Duo's politely toned question. The others stared in disbelief at the voice. Despite hoping that it was them, they had serious doubts that it actually would be.
"Ma'am?" The operator glanced up at her uncertainly before she leaned past him and hit a switch.
"You men have the worst timing of anyone I've ever known!"
Duo cursed in surprise. He hadn't expected to have actually received a reply from her, or at least not that quickly.
"Of course we do. We've never played by your rules and you know it." The cool voice of Heero answered.
She smiled in relief, glad to know he and the others were safe.
"It's good to hear your voice again Relena." Quatre said happily.
"It's even better to hear all of yours." She said gently. "Hangar two will be open for you." She glanced at the soldier, who quickly ran from the room as he realized his orders.
"Since we're already aware of what your next step will be: when you request their presence, can you please not tell them why?" Duo asked.
She realized Duo had something possibly bad planned, but felt too relieved to argue with him.
"Can you handle that request?" She asked another soldier who stood guard.
She saluted Relena before vanishing.
"We'll meet you there."
"Understood." That was the general reply from them before the communication line went dead.
Milliardo and the others ran after Relena as she bolted happily from the room to meet them, leaving the new pilots to sit in their suits and contemplate what this new development meant for their careers as Gundam pilots…
Relena and the Defence Council stared at the once new-looking Gundams as they came in bearing the scars of their battles in the C.E. universe.
"What happened to them…?" Sally asked to nobody in particular as the Gundams stopped and were locked into place.
People gathered around in surprise and confusion as the pilots left their Gundams and walked over to Relena and the others.
Relena glanced worriedly at the wound on Duo's face. "Are you all right?"
Duo waved her concern away dismissively. "It's fine. It's just a scratch. Did you miss us?" He asked with a grin, which quickly turned into a wince because of his wound.
Relena smiled in return. "Now why would I miss nuisances like you five? I was glad when you were gone; it was one less grey hair on my head."
"Hey!"
The others chuckled in amusement.
Relena sighed in relief before quickly hugging each of the pilots, whispering that she was grateful to have each of them back.
The pilots returned her hugs with whispered thanks; even Heero and Wufei decided it was better to return the hug than seem ungrateful for her concern of them. Some of the other pilots even noted, with hidden smirks, that Heero and Relena's embrace seemed to be the longest and hardest of them all.
Milliardo frowned as he noticed that, and looked up at the Gundams as a cover. "It looks as though you took her advice of 'breaking in the Gundams' a little too literally…"
Heero glanced at him coolly. "We were pulled into another universe's war. You can't ask for better 'breaking in' than that."
"What?" Une asked in shock.
"Don't worry about it. We'll get caught up on what's been happening around here, and catch you up on what happened to us while we were gone, once we've had some time to rest. It got really rough before we came home, so we're exhausted… even if we don't look it." Trowa said.
Relena nodded in understanding. "We'll have rooms made up for you as quickly as possible." She said as she led them away from the hangar.
"Don't worry; we'll have mechanics begin working on repairs as soon as possible." Noin said as the Defence Council followed behind the pilots like a strange sort of honour guard.
"By the way…" Duo trailed off, not sure how to phrase the question he wanted to ask.
"They've been notified and you'll be able to see them by the end of the week." Relena said, smiling back at him.
Duo nodded in thanks.
"Of course, by then both sides will be caught up on what they've been up to in the past several months, right?" Milliardo asked seriously.
"Don't worry Milliardo, so long as you don't keep information from us, we won't keep any from you." Heero said dismissively.
"Although there was one errand I was asked to do in secrecy, and I ain't telling anyone about what it was I had to do." Duo said sternly.
The others nodded in agreement.
"He won't even tell us, so you can forget about extracting it from him." Quatre said.
Milliardo nodded. "That's fine."
Relena led them to a lounge. "You can wait here until your rooms are ready. I'll take care of that personally."
The Defence Council glanced amongst themselves. "We have some business to attend to, so we'll see you tomorrow." Noin said as she waved goodbye to the pilots before they were left alone to collapse in chairs and on couches as the pressures of the C.E. universe's war were finally lifted from them.
"It's good to be home…" Quatre admitted.
The others silently agreed as sleep decided it couldn't wait for their rooms to be ready and it took them one by one on whatever object of furniture they had collapsed onto.
The Defence Council and Relena paused outside, glancing back at the closed door warily.
"So how are we going to break the news to them that they were, essentially, replaced?" Sally asked worriedly.
"Make sure their guns are taken away first, because we're going to be shot." Noin said wryly.
"There's nothing they can do about it. You can't undo what has already been done. They'll just have to live with it." Une said sternly.
"However, if things get out of hand, the new pilots will be shipped back to their homes. Heero and the others are better disciplined and more experienced, so naturally they'll be allowed to stay." Milliardo said as they began walking away to avoid being accidentally overheard.
"Not to mention that we trust them a great deal more than anybody sent by those power-hungry ambassadors…" Noin said with an amused smile.
The others nodded in agreement.
Relena sighed, looking down at the floor. "I feel bad for the replacement pilots though. We basically made them a great deal of promises, and then put them through hell, and now they're going to be thrown out."
"They'll only be thrown out if they don't follow the rules we'll slap down. Besides, you made that perfectly clear in our first meeting with them: they were second to Heero and the others if they returned. Now that they have, the new pilots will become their backup… unless circumstances force us to return them to their ambassadors." Milliardo said as he placed a reassuring hand on Relena's shoulder.
"You're right… I'll let you deal with them; I must go make accommodations for the others." She said quickly before separating and running to find the official in charge of the base.
The Defence Council could barely contain their happiness at the return of their old comrades as they walked down the hallway, talking amongst themselves about things that were completely unrelated to their duties.
"You did what?" Duo yelled incredulously as they learned that they had been declared dead and had been replaced.
Two days had passed, but the Defence Council had surprisingly been able to prevent the original pilots learning about, or even running into, the new pilots.
"Now I understand why guns weren't allowed in this meeting." Heero said icily.
"Don't worry. We'll handle all the hassle of bringing you back to life. As for the new pilots, they'll be your backup. They'll take on menial tasks that aren't worth your time. However, you will still be in charge of guarding the shuttle. That's one task we won't delegate to them." Milliardo said sternly.
"So even though you trained these guys, you still don't trust them?" Trowa asked in disbelief as he shook his head.
Milliardo nodded in response.
"We can't trust them because we don't trust the ambassadors. It's as simple as that." Noin explained.
"Please try to get along with them. Once we've heard what happened to you, we'll be bringing them in so you can become acquainted with each other. And please keep things civil. We've already warned them that there will be consequences if they aren't, so we have to hold you five to the same standard." Relena's plea turned into a stern warning.
She didn't want to be firm with them, but she didn't want the ambassadors accusing her or the Defence Council of having double standards for both sets of pilots.
They nodded in understanding before glancing at each other to see who was willing to tell them what they had been through.
Finally Quatre sighed. "I guess I will… but I'm warning you: you won't believe what I'm about to tell you…"
Milliardo and the others glanced at each other. "Try us." He said.
Quatre nodded. "All right, but I warned you…" He proceeded to tell them everything from when Duo first spotted the anomaly up to when they realized they were home.
It took two hours and several glasses of water in order for Quatre to tell Relena and the Defence Council what had happened to them, with some minor input from those who had gone their separate ways.
Relena was left speechless after hearing about the lengths the two sides went in a desperate attempt to annihilate their enemies.
"That's horrible…" Sally said weakly.
"Hopefully remembering that horror will make people try hard to keep the peace that had begun to settle as we left…" Heero said quietly.
The silence that fell was heavy as they realized how badly it could have been for them if the Romefeller Foundation or OZ had fought like the Earth Forces and ZAFT did.
A few moments passed before everyone regained their focus.
"All right, I guess we should bring in your fellow pilots…" Relena said nervously.
Tension began to form in the room from the older pilots as Milliardo left to retrieve them.
"And I mean it: keep things civil. I don't want to lose you guys." Relena said firmly before Milliardo reappeared with the nine pilots behind him.
Noin and the others tensed as they noticed the way some of the pilots were looking at each other.
"This isn't going to go well…" Sally whispered to Noin worriedly.
Noin shook her head in agreement as the new pilots took their seats across from the older pilots.
Once the introductions were over, the pilots stared at each other in silence as they seemed to be inspecting one another.
Heero was the only one who seemed to be completely disinterested in the new pilots, while Wufei seemed to regard them with contempt.
The others wore varying degrees of distrust and wariness for the new pilots.
Neither side seemed willing to try and get to know the other, so Relena finally got fed up with the tension and broke it up with a sharp clap of her hands.
The new pilots jumped as the noise startled them; the older ones simply glanced at her.
"All right… I guess that ends this meeting. Both teams should at least try to get along because next week you'll be started on joint-training sessions." She snapped at them.
The older pilots glanced over at the new pilots with the same expressions they had been wearing before, but quickly turned their attentions back to Relena with reluctant nods of agreement.
Not wanting to be outdone by the more disciplined older pilots, the new pilots nodded in agreement as well before being led away by Milliardo.
"Well that was productive… at least they kept things civil like you asked them to…" Noin whispered in her ear, resulting in a sigh from Relena before she dismissed the older pilots.
"This is going to go badly, isn't it?" She asked Noin, who simply shrugged in reply before leaving to do a quick assessment on the Tallgeese III.
Noin had the strangest feeling it would be needed sooner than Milliardo expected.
Author's Note: I hope this doesn't turn out wonky. If it does, let me know. So my dad had to replace his harddrive, which meant he lost his programs. Including the nice and fancy Word. Oh well. I refuse to put off uploading much longer, so I'm uploading from Wordpad. Hopefully things doen't get weird. These last few chapters are setting up for the next part of the trilogy. Whoo! Enjoy, please.