Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Turtle Neck
I heard the door slide open, but I stayed still as I lay down on my rock hard bed, an arm draped across my face, covering my green-hazel eyes. My short brown hair spread out on my thin unsupportive, poor excuse for a pillow, and I listened as foot steps neared my bed.
"Get up," a deep mono-toned voice said, and I ignored it as I continued to feign unconsciousness. "Get up, woman." The voice growled again, and he roughly grabbed my arm and forced me up.
"Alright- alright already, I'm up." I said as I shook his hand off of my arm. I took a second to stare at the man, and blenched when I took in his stereotypical body guard physique. He was a tall, bald, muscle bound man, with permanent scowl plastered to his face. His space suit stretched across his large oversized muscles, and he looked as if he was going to burst at any moment.
"The doctor wants to see you,"
"Oh Gee- that was a hard one to guess," I mumbled, and he handcuffed my arms behind my back. He ushered me out of the room, and I walked calmly down the hallway, and he led me to the same control room where I last saw the maniacal doctor.
"Ah, Miss Noir- How have you been?" he said with mock royalty, putting his hand, and claw together in front of him.
I rolled my eyes at the memory. Not too long after my meeting with Dr.J, I was being suited up and sent to earth. "Your mission is," his voice echoed in my head, "to get to Earth, and destroy all of the mobile suits, on this train. We will provide you with all the transportation, explosives and weapons necessary, so just accomplish the mission by any means." His mechanical claw clicked in my face, and I turned my cheek away. It wasn't unusual for Dr. J to send me on random missions, but to the average person it would be weird that he'd send his tech to do his dirty work… but I wasn't just his technician. I was also his assassin, and puppet.
Pulling my gun from it holster, I reloaded the clip, pulled back the slide, and stood quietly as I listened for the train's driver. Dead OZ soldiers lay at my feet, and my foot knocked one in the arm as I made my way down the rumbling trains corridor. I stopped for a second and checked my jacket pocket for the detonator to the explosives I planted to the sides of every train car. Patting it softly, and took a deep breathe and walked further down the hall. I heard the humming sound of human vocal cords as I approached the open door of the cab.
"Yes sir," I heard, "We will be nearing the target point soon," he said, and as he put the phone down, I snuck up behind him with my gun aimed at the back of his head.
Suddenly the train shook violently, and I stumbled a little to the left. After the jolt, the driver heard my steps and turned around. Before he could reach for his gun, I put a bullet through his head. "Now what the hell was that?" I said out loud about the train shake, as his body slumped to the ground.
Tucking my gun into my holster, I turned around to the emergency escape door, and pulled the latch. That jolt caught me off guard. What could have caused it? The explosives? As the door flew open, and I stuck my head out the door into the rushing wind, only to have my blood go cold.
As I held onto the inside rail, I was staring into the glowing green eyes of an large, dark, and ominous mobile suit with its arms wrapped around the body of one of the trains cars.
'Oh shit,' I thought, and while I had the feeling that the pilot was staring at me, I let go of the rail and I went sailing away from the train, and towards the ground. 'It will be a miracle if I get out of this alive.' I thought as I heard the sound of crashing metal behind me, then I hit the ground.
It all happened so quickly, I crashed into the ground, and it felt as if I had broken every bone on the right side of my body. Sharp rocks, branches, and metal shards cut against my body as I rolled. I went for maybe twenty-five yards before finally coming to a stop thanks to the courtesy of a boulder. The pain of every cut and scratch began to become apparent, and I scarcely moved. I opened my eyes and ignoring the pain, I hurried to my feet as I saw the mobile suits that I was suppose to destroy, emerging from the train that now lay on its side, on the other side of the tracks. I stumbled a little, and hit my knees as dizziness overtook my head. Looking down, I saw that were was a jagged piece of metal protruding from my thigh. Gritting my teeth, I wrapped both hands around the large piece of metal, and yanked it out as fast as I could. "ahh!" I screamed but quickly bit down the pain. 'I have to get out of here,' I thought rapidly, and looked for cover.
Limping behind the large boulder that stopped my rolling, I quickly surveyed my surroundings. I felt the blood running down my leg, and I took a moment to rip a strip from the bottom of my shirt to wrap the wound the best I could. Tying the knot tight, I looked up when I felt the ground shake. My gun had disappeared, and the only thing I had left on me was the detonator.
"Absolutely unbelievable," I mumbled, as I looked up and saw the raging battle. Soon I recognized one of the mobile suits that the OZ suits were attacking. The dark suit that over turned the train, that was Gundam 02! It was unmistakable with its long Scythe ripping through enemy mobile suits like butter. There was another one joining the fight with him, it was white and tan. Gundam 04, I recognized it from the blue prints, as it puller out its two curved weapons of choice. I barely had time to observe before I took notice of large mobile suit pieces falling from the sky about a half mile away. Looking up, I saw another raging battle. This time there was only one Gundam fighting, amongst the Oz suits. The red and white suit used its artillery as its main weapon, and I immediately realized it was Gundam 03.
'Are they all here?' I thought excitedly as my eyes scoured the battle field. Then there it was. Far off in the distance I saw Gundam 01, fighting with… could it be? The Tallgeese? I felt a smile creep to my face as I witnessed the legendary suit fighting.
So amazing….
I came back from my admiration as a fallen mobile suit crashed near me. I ducked as metal shards and dust flew every where. I was about to run for the patch of woods that was nearby when I heard a voice. I stopped then remembered that I still had a radio attached to the back of my belt. It was the voice of a woman. It was as if the entire battle field froze.
"To all Gundam pilots, Listen! We are ready to attack all the colonies with ballistic missiles. All the space missile sites, formally belonging to the Federation, are now under our control. The destiny of the colonies is now in our hands! This is not a bluff! All the pilots must surrender and hand over the gundams to us immediately!"
I listened intently, and I could not believe what I had just heard. Destroy the colonies? Who would do such a selfish thing for a silly victory?
The Gundams stood still.
They weren't going to surrender, were they?
No one moved.
Suddenly there was another voice on the intercom that sent a chill down my spine.
"I had no idea that OZ was such a bunch of idiots." He said, "For the last time, the colonies never wanted a war with you. It is only I, who is challenging you guys," he took a breath then continued, "Attacking innocent colonies? What an inhuman strategy that is. You guys will indeed do anything to achieve your goal… I have no choice. I hereby declare that we surrender,"
My heart stopped. "What?!" I yelled out loud, as if the old man could hear me from here. Then the woman spoke again.
"Good, I accept your surrender. Have the Gundams disarm and surrender to us immediately." She said almost too happily.
"We surrender," Dr. J started again, "but we will not hand over the Gundams. I repeat, we surrender, but we will not hand over the Gundams."
No sooner had those words left Dr. J's mouth, did Gundam 01's core light up, and it self destructed.
"No…," I uttered, the pieces of 01, the Gundam I had spent the last year working on, showered the ground. I saw a small white figure fly from the wreckage and hit the ground. 'That stupid pilot.' I thought 'that careless bastard!' I yelled in my head.
I managed to get to my feet, and decided to take advantage of the silence on the battle field to escape. There was some woods not to far from where I kneeled, so I ran, with a limp, to safety. While I limped through the rubble of fallen mobile suits, I heard a small clinking in the neck of my shirt. I stopped for a second to pull out the dog tags the doctors had given me. I snapped the chain off my neck and tossed it on the ground. I'll never work for them again. I heard the suits moving again, so I started running.
'How could he just self-destruct like that? We spent a year building that thing, and he destroys it after two months?!' I thought still outraged by the scene I had witnessed.
Finding a tree stump to sit on, I took a minute to asses the damage of my free fall. Two large gashes on both of my arms accompanied by the hole in my flesh that the jagged metal left on my thigh. A cut across my cheek, my forehead and the number of cuts across my legs, not to mention the other cuts that cut through my clothing. Other than that, a fractured finger, but nothing life threatening, and defiantly nothing that would require major medical care.
I was about to tend to my wounds when I heard the familiar roar of a Gundam coming near me. Standing, I looked upward through the patch of open trees. A blur of red and white passed over, and I put an arm on a nearby tree to steady myself against the strong wind. I felt something wet drip on my head, and wet specks hit my face. I reached up to touch my face and I looked at the wet substance on my fingers.
"Blood?" I questioned, as the roaring died down, and the wind calmed. "Why would a Gundam have blood on it?"
Shrugging away the thought, I concentrated once again on my wounds. Tearing more strips of cloth from the bottom of my ripped shirt, I made temporary tourniquets for the larger cuts. After tightly securing another wrap on my thigh, I hoisted myself up, and began trekking through the woods. After about an hour of going over rocks, through streams and avoiding thorned bushes, I came to a small area that was oddly devoid of trees and bushes. By now it was night, so I bent down and with the moon light; I saw fresh car tracks in the dirt. Finally, I thought, something that will lead me out of this forest. After inspecting which direction the dirt was thrown from the wheels, I followed the tracks well into the night. Not long after the sun began to rise, I came to a camp…. An OZ camp. I sighed "Should have known… no breaks for Mack!" I exasperated, and continued to observe the camp.
Luckily most of the soldiers were still asleep with the exception of a few early birds. Their vehicles weren't too far from where I was, so ducking behind the bushes and trees, I made it to where they were parked. Just as I took one step out from the bushes, I shrunk back as a soldier walked my way.
"Yeah Captain! I'm going into town for water provisions!" he made a signal to someone in the distance, and continued to walk my way. The young soldier turned to one of the jeeps, and I was luck, that he had chosen one close to where I was. I reached out, and pulled him into the bushes. He struggled, but I pinned him to a tree, my arm pressed against his collar bone. I saw the terror in his eyes as he tried to grab for his gun, but I got to it first, and pointed it in-between his eyes.
"Don't make me kill you," I mumbled in a low voice, and he nodded rapidly. He was maybe four years older than me, tall and strong with lush brown hair and frightened hazel eyes, and yet here I was, 16, and one movement from ending his life.
"Give me your jacket, hat and the keys to the jeep. I don't want to hurt you, I just want the car," I ordered, and held out a hand. He fumbled as he did as I told him, and set the items in my hand. I smiled a little then said "This might hurt," then knocked him on the side of his head with the butt of his gun. He slumped to the side of the tree, and a pair of sunglasses slid from his pants pocket. "Perfect" I grinned, and slipped them onto my face. Deciding the take the gun along, I tucked it into the back of my pants. I put my arms in the jacket, and stuffed my ragged brown hair into the soldiers' hat. I figured since I would be sitting in the jeep, my shorts wouldn't make too much of a difference. Looking around to make sure it was safe, I quickly got into the car, turned the key in the ignition, put the car into drive, and drove through the camp towards the exit. I slowed a little as a man walked towards the car. My heart raced slightly as I played with the idea of getting caught, but sighed in relief when he waved me through. I waved back, and accelerated through the gate.
Driving the way that had taken me all night to walk, I was out of the woods within minutes, and I was headed towards any kind of space port that I could find. I knew there was one close because when I landed on earth, I had left my duffle bag in a locker at one called, 'New World Shuttle Port'. I had brought along the small amount of belongings that I had, put it away and hid the key, just in case I made it out of the mission alive. 'I'm not going back to Dr. J' I had thought, and I felt a surge of triumph, as I finally realized that I had made it out alive, and that I was finally going to be free.
I found the correct road, and sped down it until I saw the Shuttle tower in the distance. Parking in the lot- I walked into the terminal and found the lockers. Walking over to a tree in the corner, and dug my fingers into the dirt until I felt the little piece of metal at my finger tips. Pulling it out, I shook the dirt off and headed to the lockers. '365, 365' I said to myself, and when I found it, I opened it and pulled out my black duffle bag. I noticed I was getting some looks from an elderly woman sitting in a chair waiting for her shuttle, and decided that my half soldier, half bloody shorts attire wasn't a good cover. Ducking into the bathroom, I changed into my only other outfit, Jeans, sports bra, spaghetti strap shirt and a pair of tennis shoes. I pulled out the small first-aid kid that I thanked my self for packing, and I properly tended to some of my wounds adding a band-aid here, and peroxide there. When I finally ran out of supplies, I ran a hand through my hair to try and tidy it, and walked out of the bathroom. Feeling better, I walked through the terminal, and the elderly woman didn't give me a second glance.
"One ticket for..." I said to the lady at the counter, and I glanced up at the flight schedule and the current time. "Colony L3 please" I finished, choosing the flight that was about to take off in 20 minutes. Paying with the small supply of money that I had tucked away in a sock while in Dr. J's captivity, I headed toward the gate to wait for my flight. My stomach growled a bit, and I realized that it had been almost three days that I had gone without food. I looked at the sparse amount of money that I had, and chose a bottle of water over the tasty looking MacDonald's at the other side of the terminal. I sucked the bottle down quickly, and tossed its empty shell in the garbage before I took my seat in front of my gate.
Ten minutes later, I was seated in a seat in the coach part of the shuttle. 'Much better then a storage cabin' I thought to myself, as I remembered my plan B, if I didn't have enough money to purchase a ticket. The stewardess began talking to everyone on the shuttle, and I began to zone her out as I cozied up to the window to which I was seated next to.
"You are only 11 years old young lady- you are not going anywhere!" my mother, gorgeous in her flowing blue dress and pinned back hair, yelled at my elder sister, who stood with her long dark violet hair flowing around her shaking shoulders.
The two had been fighting for weeks. I always thought that my sister, 3 years my elder, would always be there to protect me. I never actually thought that she would want to leave me, and our family behind.
"I just lost your brothers," my mother pleaded, "Don't make me lose you too," she began to cry, and tears creeped to my eyes as I remembered my 5 older teen brothers who were all lost in the war. I watched from the door way, as my sister glared at my mother.
"You just let them die! I want to go to the academy and redeem them. Hold up our family honor, and you are being selfish by not letting me go!" she screeched in an unrelenting, unforgiving voice. I turned away from the scene, and as I did I glanced up to see my father, tall and handsome, with his light brown hair and stern blue eyes. The lines in his face told many stories of his hard life, and he glared in the direction of my mother and sister. They paid no attention to him as they continued to fight.
He put a comforting hand on top of my head, and mumbled "Why does she wish to break away from us?" before he left my side and took control of the fight.
"Ladies and gentle men, we have arrived at the colony L3; please buckle your seat belts as we make our connection, thank you!" a chipper stewardess said over the intercom, and woke me from my sleep.
While waiting for our connection, I thought back my dream, which hadn't been pleasant at all.
My sister disappeared three days following that fight... and my parents were assassinated fours days after that, and I was spared by the killers. I remember staring down at the still figures of my parents with tears in my eyes as one of the masked men grabbed me by the back of my neck and he picked me up without any effort. I couldn't fight from his grip as he carried me out of my home and left me at the door step of a rundown war orphanage. I wasn't there very long before the headmistress informed me that some higher power had paid for me to go the Lake Victoria Academy. Why I wasn't sure, and who... I never found that out either.
Over the course of one year, I had become a 9 year-old with a massive amount of built up anger. No longer sweet and shy, students learned to avoid me, and they made room as I walked down the halls. I knew one person to blame, and I didn't know if I'd ever see her again. One day, while walking down the hallway, clad in my OZ uniform, I heard another student say 'Noin' and I turned thinking that they had pronounced my name incorrectly. I nearly dropped my books as I saw her, the girl who made my life a living hell...my elder sister.
The shuttle shook as the connection completed and pulled me out of my day dream. I rubbed the rest of the sleep from my eyes, and stood up with the rest of the passengers as we departed the shuttle. Holding tightly onto my duffle bag, I walked out into the busy terminal area with taxi's and cars driving in every which way. I looked around, and the nearest walking exit was to my left so I headed in that direction.
In about 10 minutes I was walking down a side walk headed into the outskirts of the city. As I walked, colony began to glow with an orange hue, which meant that it was preparing for sun down. The natural curve of the colony was more obvious from a distance, and the horizon made the even the tallest buildings look marginally shorter. I wandered into an open field to try and find some shelter before it became dark. I figured that the woods on the other side of the field would be better than nothing and headed in that direction. I smiled a little as I looked at the artificial forest, kept alive by water systems running where the roots were. Humans were the only, remotely real things on the colonies, but it was nice that they at least attempted real shrubbery.
Finally reaching the woods, I walked with my small limp about a quarter of a mile when I came to another clearing. Confused, I poked my head out of the woods to see that the clearing was filled with cages, crates, and large colorful tents.
'A circus?' I thought as I observed the grounds of this silent circus. 'Odd'... Just as I was going to take a step out into the open, I heard some voices and shrank back into the safety of the trees. I carefully held my duffle bag close to me so that it didn't snag on branches.
Out of curiosity, I crawled on the ground at the edge of the woods to try and find out where the voices were coming from. I was careful not to step in any big twigs as I approached the voices and their words became clearer. Finally I was close enough to make out every word, and I peered out of the leaves.
There were two young men standing, facing one another, about five feet from each other. One of them was much taller than the other, and he had a weird hair cut that resembled a fan being held up by massive amounts of hair gel. The second guy was a little shorter, and he had a long braid that flowed down his back. If it weren't for his voice, I would have thought that he was a woman. Both were slender, one in a turtle neck, the other in all black clothing, and what looked to be a priests' collar. They looked young too… maybe 15 or 16. Another thing that caught my attention was that they both had guns tucked into their belts. 'Not normal teenagers' I said to my self.
"I'm telling you man, I saw a girl at the site." The braided one said.
"Maybe she was an OZ soldier who escaped the train," the guy in the turtle neck responded coolly. He crossed his arms, as the other one tried to convince him. This was a very interesting conversation I decided, and stayed where I was hiding.
"It couldn't have been. She wasn't wearing a uniform. I saw her jump out of the train, then after Heero self destructed, she was limping away into the forest." He seemed determined about his story, and I suddenly felt uneasy.
'Train? Heero? Limping? Oh no he's talking about me!' I thought in panic, 'are they the Gundams? How do they know 01? They have to be the pilots!' I took a deep breath. 'This cant be good.'
"I don't know why you are worrying about some girl." Turtle neck said in a flat tone, "she might have been a captive of the soldiers who got a lucky break."
The braided one looked momentarily stumped for words, so I decided to take that opportunity to sneak away from the arguing pair. Moving my foot backwards, I tried to crawl away backwards without making much sound. Putting one knee behind the other, I got about two feet away before a loud snap echoed through the forest. If there were birds in this forest… they would have flown away. I sighed in exasperation as both pilots turned in my direction with their guns drawn.
"Come out." Turtle neck demanded, and I stood up with a small grin on my face with my hands raised. It wasn't that I found being pointed at with guns was fun, I just thought that the fact that I was exposed by a little twig was immensely hilarious.
"Please- don't shoot" I said with a flat voice. Maybe its just my weird warped sense of humor that made me smile more, but as the braided pilot gaped at me and stuttered, "T-that's her" I could hardly keep my composure. I thought that it was so funny that I had already been captured, not even two days after I had escaped.
"Quit smiling," the braided one, ordered as I stepped out of the woods leaving my duffle bag hidden in the bushes, and fell to my knees with my hands behind my head.
They searched me, moved me into an empty tent and then had me sit in a chair where they proceeded to tie me to it, all the while holding a gun to my back.
"You have to be kidding me," I said staring down at the crude rope that they had used to tie me up with.
They interrogated me, for what I'm not sure, and it was well into the night before they decided to give up for the time being. Lucky me, they didn't seem to be into the torture type if interrogation. What's my name, who do I work for, what was I doing there and all those typical type of questions. The so-called "training" I received for resisting interrogation from Dr. J was actually painful so I hardly blinked as I ignored their questions. They grew weary after a while, not to mention they seemed to have something else on their minds.
"I have nothing you want, so just let me go," I said, and they looked unconvinced, "honest," I added.
"Right, and how do you expect us to believe you? You were at our most recent battle, and then you show up here…"
I stopped listening to him rant as I sat and stared blankly at the pilots. I would have rather died on the train then sit here and listen to these two explain to me why I was suspicious and therefore, undoubtedly up to something. Turtle neck was talking now, his mouth made very little movements as he spoke, whereas the other one has a mouth that could swallow a grapefruit. The differences between the two were astounding. Not that I was expecting them to be little Heero- clones, but I still thought that doctors would want pilots that were somewhat alike. These two argued so much they couldn't even decide what to do with me.
"Are you even listening?" I heard, and looked up into irritated violet eyes.
"um- yeah," I lied and smiled. This didn't help his expression as I suppressed a laugh.
Eventually it became really late, and they moved me into an empty animal cage.
"No, no, no. Get me out of here. This is ridiculous!" I shouted as they set me inside… still attached to the chair. "Untie me right now!"
"Shut up." Turtle neck said, and put a gag in my mouth. "So you don't wake the neighbors," he said, and walked out of the cage. I struggled in disbelief at what he did, but the ropes were so tight, that I was completely immobile. Not wanting to make a fool of myself by struggling so much that I tipped over, I sat still and leaned my head back. 'Unbelievable,' I thought. They locked the cage, draped a tarp over the top to hide me, and I heard their silent footsteps as the walked away.
I tried, in vain, to wiggle out of my restraints but the ropes were too tight and soon I felt them digging into my flesh. 'like I need anymore wounds' I thought as my mind wandered to my wrapped up thigh. Using my tongue, I pushed the gag from my mouth, and licked my lips. When I stopped struggling, I began to realize just how fatigued my body was, and soon I drifted off.
"Cadet Noin! Have you begun you paper yet?" the happy cadet asked bouncing up to Lucrezia Noin.
As she turned to talk to her new arrival, she caught my eye. I notices how her face drained of color and her eyes widened in shock. I glared, putting as much acid into the stare as I could manage.
"M-Mackenzie?" she stuttered, ignoring the girl, and I turned to walk away from her. Her face looked torn. "Mackenzie?" she said louder as I walked further. I heard running footsteps and a hand fell on my shoulder, and she stepped in front of me to stop me. She put both hands on my shoulders to keep me still.
"Mackenzie. It's me, your sister, Lucrezia." She said in almost a pleading tone. "What are you doing here?" she asked but before she could say anymore, I grabbed her hands and roughly took them off of my shoulders. Making my voice hard as stone, I glared.
"I don't have a sister, so take your hands off of me, and leave me alone." I growled, turned and walked away.
Suddenly I felt tight a constricted. My arms were stuck to my sides and I was forced into the sitting position. "Let me go!" I yelled furiously at my invisible captor and I winced as I heard a loud bang of metal.
My eyes snapped open and the sun light hit my eyes. I was still struggling when I realized where I was… tied to a chair in an animal's cage.
I felt sweat on my body as I calmed my breathing. Turtle neck (who was now in a T-shirt) was standing in front of me with the tarp in his hand.
"Nightmare?" he asked looking smug.