(You all thought I was dead didn't you? Huh huh? Well the gundam pilots gave me a protection detail… and that's all they gave me… *sits in a corner* I don't wanna talk about it)
201 A.C.
He was dead... he was so dead! Of all the things he did, of all the things he could have done, leaving a note was the worst; there was no way he was going to get away with this. Using a few tricks she learned earlier in her life she managed to hack into his mobile suit.
"Zechs Marquez what the heck do you think you're doing!" the aforementioned man almost sighed somehow he had known this was going to happen
"By the looks of things I'm heading for the place the other Gundam pilots disappeared at" silence greeted his answer, a rather angry silence "I left a note" he continued trying to appease his wife, Lucrezia took the opposite reaction however
"And you know who found that note? Liem!" Zechs had a feeling that she would have been angry with him whether he had left a note or not "Lucrezia, Liem is five years old, he cannot read"
"He can read"
"Dog and cat are not in the note" she crossed her arms and turned to the side. Oh great she's being stubborn about this
"He recognized your hand writing" with another sigh Zechs nodded
"he clearly has your intelligence then" that was a trick Zechs used a lot, just say the child got a good attribute from her and she should con-seed the argument, unfortunately Fate was not smiling on him that day
"And I'm sure he got his recklessness from you" this was not going to end well.
"Would you feel better if I promised to come back safely?"
"That would imply that you might not come back at all"
"I have every intention of coming back"
"So did everyone else!"
"Lucrezia you are-" Zechs was cut off by his warning beeper just in time to dodge a blast to the chest "What the-"
"Zechs what's going on?" Lucrezia asked worriedly
"I'm going to have to call you back" he told his wife
"Zechs wai-" Zechs turned off communications and looked at his enemy two mobile dolls stood before him one behind him what are mobile dolls doing here? No time to think as his enemy's advanced on him moving quickly he put his thrusters on full dodging the dolls who then swerved up to engage him, these were the older models so their aim wasn't quit in sync just barely missing the Epyon 2. Zechs smirked briefly it wasn't exactly like old times but it would do, he cut off his thrusters and let them pass before picking them off quickly. Well that was bit disappointing, he didn't even get a chance to use his whip, it was not like he expected them to actually be a challenge but he would have liked them to put up a little bit of a fight.
With yet another sigh he decided it would be best to call his wife now before she decided that it would be better to raise her son without a father.
"Zechs Marquez if you hang up on me one more time!-"
"I'm sorry dear but I was a little busy fending off mobile dolls" this caused his wife pause
"Are you okay?" she asked Zechs smiled glad that his wife was still capable of being worried for him
"Yes I am quite alr-" flashing and beeping caught his attention causing him to look back to the mobile dolls he had just done away with "that's impossible" he said astonished
"Zechs what's happening?" Lucrezia asked but Zechs ignored her as he was mesmerized in the light show, the mobile dolls remains were glowing? The insane fact, however, was that the energy readings didn't even register on his screen, before so much as a curse could escape Zechs lips the remnants exploded and the Epyon 2 was engulfed in a white light…
…
"-echs Zechs can you hear me? Please respond" the worried voice of Lucrezia was what brought Zechs to consciousness, though a bit groggily, he tried to speak into the com but found that his voice was hoarse and his mouth was dry; coughing roughly he hit the com button again and said in a rather quiet, cracking voice (it was the best he could muster)
"Lucrezia-" that was about all he got out before his wife was yelling
"Oh thank goodness! Zechs get back here! do you know how worried I was while you were gone?"
"Lucrezia it's only been a few second" Zechs said bewildered by his wife worry, there was a pregnant pause.
"Zechs you've been gone for three days"
C.E. 71
Duo was working on the Deathscythe when he heard the low whistle from Mu La Flaga
"that's gonna need some work"
"how long do you think it's gonna take to repair it chief Merdock?" Murrue asked Duo leaned out of his cockpit to see what the captain and commander were talking about
"A week maybe two depending on how bad the O.S. system got torched" the mechanic replied, the armor on the Strikes arm had been damaged along with the shield (but the shield was only a miner thing) either way if they were attacked soon the only weapons they would be able to rely on would be the Deathscythe and the ships weapons
"If the O.S. is any good it wouldn't get fried by something as simple as a half entry" Duo stated from his perch.
All three looked up surprised to see him as they hadn't realized he was there.
"oh? And how is it you know this?" Mu asked to which Duo shrugged
"I once found a mobile suit in the ocean that had just gone through reentry I decided to use it for parts, the O.S. was fine I even managed to get the self-destruct turned off"
"that's interesting… was the pilot still inside?" Murrue asked Duo hung his head and said
"no but when I found the guy he stole my idea and I had to scrounge for weeks to find the parts he stole from my gundam"
In sick bay
"so as I said despite his fever there's no infection and no internal damage either, right now we can't do any more than give him plenty liquids and try to lower his body temperature" the doctor told the group before him
"That's it?" Sai asked
"well this is the first time I've had to give medical treatment to a coordinator, I don't claim to be an expert when it comes to diagnosing his symptoms, however what I do understand is that their physical functions are far superior to ours so if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about it"
"But still-" Sai tried but the doctor forestalled him
"he may look the same as the rest of us but his internal abilities are completely different, he has a body capable of greater strength and a mind of acquiring more knowledge and so on, no fatal disease will develop with that immune system, sure a bullet wound could prove lethal and sometimes he might get sick but it would be a greater risk to us than to him" there was a short pause and the doctor suddenly looked excited like he was telling a great secret "did you hear about the great temperatures he was exposed to inside his cockpit?"
"No" Tolle said slightly concerned for his friend
"Well I can assure you none of us would have survived, this fever's nothing in comparison" it was at this point Mu's voice came over the com
"La Flaga here, me and Duo are coming in"
"Did I miss something?" Mu asked as he looked at the solemn faces of the group of kids
"oh no" the doctor said "I was just telling them-" as the doctor told Mu what he had been telling the others Duo walked up to the other bed and, having borrowed (stolen) the chair the doctor had previously vacated, he sat down and began to strike up a lively one sided conversation with an unconscious Heero
Later that day
Kira woke to his birdy twittering its name to him he sighed tiredly and said
"Hey birdy"
"You're finally awake" Flays voice was the last voice he had expected to hear but welcome none the less
"Flay…" at this point the boy tried to get up but was gently pushed down by a worried? Flay "you really shouldn't try to sit up so quickly" she said
"Where am I Flay?" Kira asked still tired
"the ships infirmary they said that you were unconscious when you landed on the ship, I guess that explains why you don't remember" Kira gasped in realization
"so then we must have landed" he concluded
"on earth" Flay confirmed "in a desert, we arrived sometime last night" there was a short pause before there was a heavy sigh from the other side of the room
"Whelp that's what's been happening the last eleven months while you were gone" Duo's voice was easily distinguishable from anything else "gee I hope you wake up soon I'm actually getting tired of talking to myself" concerned about were the line of conversation? Was headed Kira looked over to the other side of the room, the braided pilot was sitting in a chair next to the other bed talking to its sleeping occupant
"Who is he?" the boy questioned
"we don't know" Flay replied "He landed on the ship after you did" something darkened her face just a little bit but Kira wasn't quite sure what it was, soon she turned to him and the look was gone replaced with a smile, "he's a mobile suit pilot too, apparently Duo has been looking for him for a while" oh he's Duo's friend Kira nodded and looked at the unconscious man his shaggy brown head of hair was all that Kira could really see but he was fairly sure the man was wearing an earth alliance uniform. He's a mobile suit pilot?
At a mansion farther off
"I blended it with some ginseng tea leaf to give a more calming effect, and add a little flavor what do you think?" the dark headed commander questioned of his companion. The young blond took a sip and nodded
"this is delicious" the young man commented "although I much preferred the one with the almond and cinnamon spice" at the commanders raised brow the blond continued "it had a more unique flavor to it that I must admit has gotten quite addicting" he rubbed the back of his head with the hand not holding the coffee mug as he said this. The brown haired commander laughed at this
"Well then Mr. Winner I must give you the recipe"
"oh yes that would be a wonderful idea… assuming you remember this recipe from all the others " Mr. Winner joked as he took another sip
"yeah I will have to start writing these things down now won't I?" the older man said scratching his head, at that moment there was a knock on the door, the commander answered it and listened to the young officer on the other side for a moment, after one nod he said
"send out a scout troupe if it is there then contact me" the soldier saluted and walked off as the commander closed the door an easy grin on his face
"by that look I'd say you have some good news commander" Mr. Winner commented casually taking another sip of his coffee at that moment the other man shrugged and said
"if all goes well we might catch ourselves an angel" he sat down to continue their rather serious discussion about coffee
Back at sick bay
The first sensation he became aware of was feel, rough but soft cotton lay beneath his arms, thought came to him next he was still wearing his uniform but there was nothing that showed he was in his gundam the feel under his fingertips was cloth and he was most likely laying down, hearing soon came next and he feared that he was dreaming
"I've given him a booster to wake him but he shows no signs of improving" an unfamiliar voice spoke "he may be in comatose like state for a while"
"but he's breathing on his own right?" an all too familiar voice said "doesn't that prove anything?" it is impossible for her to be here!
"like I've said before I've never seen anything like this before" the first voice spoke
"it's possible he's faking it" another recognizable voice spoke "he's done it before and I'll just bet that he's being a jerk" there was a brief pause in which he was sure the others were giving the braided man strange looks. Or at least the unknown voice was, if she was there she would know.
"Captain Ramius" yet another voice said "Lieutenant Badgiruel needs you on the bridge" it was then her voice spoke again
"I'm on my way" it wasn't her, a deep sadness enveloped him but he suppressed it, he already knew it couldn't have been her, after the swish of the doors were heard he decided it was best to greet the world, even if he felt like dying in it, his eyes slide open and the braided pilot was the first thing he saw
"Heero" Duo said enthusiastically "It's about time you woke up" Heero blinked "you gonna say anything buddy?" Heero blinked again and Duo heaved a big sigh this is actually kind of fun "well that's just fine and dandy cause you are in big trouble anyway" there was a long pause before Heero spoke
"Relena?" to his utter annoyance his voice sounded cracked and tired but Duo seemed to let that be in favor of answering his friend
"oh Relena's fine" he said dismissively "but Zechs misses his sparring partner and he's been using us as substitutes" it started off as a snort but soon turned into full blown out laughter Duo smiled at his friends laughter but frowned when it turned into a coughing fit
"hey take it easy man" Duo said grabbing the water cup he had with him and poking the straw at the other pilots mouth, Heero glared at him but excepted the drink anyway "I mean I know you think you're invincible but attempting a reentry without at least a little something to keep you cool is plain out suicidal" as an afterthought he decided to add "you didn't go suicidal on me again did you?"
"I'm fine Duo" Heero growled his voice sounded better after the drink but nowhere near as strong as he would have liked. Duo only shrugged
"just saying"
In the desert
The brown haired lieutenant stared threw the binoculars at the ship before him
"it looks like the reports were correct sir it's Big Angel" all the lieutenant did was nod to the ensign
"why can't we just go and destroy it now?" another ensign asked agitatedly honestly if the man didn't get that attitude of his checked soon the lieutenant was going to arrange an accident
"Need I remind you ensign Sanders" the brown haired man said calmly despite his previous thoughts "that our mission is to observe, not to engage"
"yeah yeah" Sanders said flippantly the lieutenant raised a brow at his subordinates distinct lack of respect
"gear up" the lieutenant sighed "we are leaving" before he made it to his BACOW Sanders had decided to do something stupid… he charged the ship the lieutenant cursed
"Ensign Carter get in your BACOW and head to his left we have to stop him before he makes a mistake and I kill him" Ensign Carter nodded and headed for his suit he did not want to get on the lieutenants bad side.
Back on the archangel
Murrue dismissed the salute she received from her lieutenant
"what do you have?" Natarle Badgiruel stood too attention as she spoke
"because of the lack of radar range we were not entirely sure but we think something is speeding towards us"
"do we know what it is?" at Natarle's negative Murrue nodded "we'll go into level two alert then" her lieutenant nodded and gave the alert
In sick bay
"All hands to level two battle stations" Natarle's voice rang loudly over the speakers Heero tried to get up and Duo pushed him down
"there is no way you're getting in a mobile suit much less a gundam in your condition" the braided man said
"Duo I can help"
"Heero you can barely breathe right now, I can handle it, the last thing I need is for you to pass out in the middle of a fight" Heero sighed
"fine" he said with a huff well that was easy Duo went to the door and just before leaving he turned to Heero
"Stay" Duo commanded, he could have sworn he heard Heero mumble I am not a dog as he left the room
In the hanger
"What do you mean the Strikes not capable of Flight?" Kira asked bewildered
"I mean there is no way we can get it ready in time for you to fight the arms been powered down, it will be impossible to get it suited up in time" Merdock said
"Don't worry I'll get this bunch, how many are there?" Duo said
"Three but kid you don't have permission to launch" to that Duo gave a cheeky grin
"I don't need permission" as soon as Duo left Kira looked to the Strike and clenched his fists.
Outside
Oh yes he was going to kill Sanders the man not only disobeyed orders to not be seen he attacked the ship thereby alerting them to fact that they had been found , I'm going to outright murder him. Carter was too slow to catch up to the upstart idiot of whom the lieutenant was considering officially demoting and then making sure all of his duty's consisted of janitorial work. That was something he could have affectively done in Preventers, pulling his voice over the com-link he spoke in a much calmer voice than his agitation level should have provided
"Ensign Sanders cease and desist before I have you court marshaled" the lieutenants words fell on deaf ears
"Come on Michel think about your career!" Carter's words might as well have been in another language he's ignoring us all at once the left hanger doors opened and…
Nothing else happened that was never good Sanders let out a laugh and headed for the opening Carter put on a burst of speed passing Sanders and was in the process of turning when a large scythe appeared out of nowhere cutting the right hind leg of Carters suit off and taking a front leg with it rendering it useless
"Aaron!" Sanders shouted and made to attack but the lieutenant beat him to it
"I'll take this suit you and Carter get out of here" he shouted jumping out of the way of another slice the Deathscythe threw at him.
Duo had gotten the first one quickly enough and would have gotten the second one if the third one hadn't gotten in the way.
Oh well it didn't matter he was gonna get the third one anyway this just saved time. He swung his scythe at the mobile suit attacking him but missed? You're learning Duo made another strike for the mobile suit in the meantime the second one went after the ship Duo turned to stop him but that pesky third suit was getting in the way
"Sanders stop attacking that ship before I shot you" the Lieutenant yelled, again nothing
Inside the archangel- bridge
"hey anything I can help with?" Murrue was surprised by the voice behind her
"Commander what-"
"we haven't been able to prep the sky grasper yet" Mu interrupted "we were going to but the attack happened and all attentions been put to making the strike at least workable I was in the way"
"captain one of them is heading towards us " Tolle said
"send out scatter shots" Natarle shouted
"it would be a lot more helpful if we had another mobile suit out there" Murrue commented as the BACOW let out a barrage of missiles
"that other kid is awake" Murrues eyes widened at Mu's words
"do you think he's capable?-" she was cut off again by the shaking of the commanders head "he looked a little worse for the wear" there was a short pause "I should tell you… he hacked the video feed"
In the hanger
Kira couldn't just keep waiting like this the O.S. was fine it was the manual labor that was taking so long, for some reason Kira found himself feeling irritated, maybe it was the heat yeah that has to be it
Suddenly a thought struck him there's anther mobile suit on board before anyone noticed Kira was gone he was already halfway to the second hanger.
Back outside
Crap he's heading for the hanger in hindsight leaving the hanger door wide open may not have been the smartest thing to do but Duo could have handled it if it weren't for just one little thing
"Will you just die already" Duo yelled that darn mobile suit he was fighting, of which looked decidedly like a cat, was not letting him get anywhere, shooting a barrage of missiles at him it jumped and managed to take his scythe depositing it behind him oh man if I didn't know any better I'd say this was a gundam pilot "alright kitty why don't you go back to your din and take your friends with you" he was speaking on an all bans frequency and angling towards his weapon unfortunately every time he took a step the other suit did the same. The second mobile suit had made it to the hanger, it was all over they had no way to defend against a suit like that!
In the hanger
Kira had managed to get inside the Wing Zero and was just starting it up when the BACOW found its way into the hanger before it could take a shot though Kira let out a battle cry and an actually kicked the BACOW out of the hanger
And outside
The mobile suit flying out of the hanger was unexpected, as was the suit that followed it, the Wing Zero stood just in the sight of the hanger door and Duo cursed "Heero I thought I told you that you were in no condition to enter the battle!" he yelled over the privet com, silence was only his answer.
Kira didn't even hear Duo over the speakers; all he could see was his enemy the Bacow in front of him he immediately shot it, he could sense? Shots to his right, he took care of it, there was only one left… no, wait… there were three? Who? Who was his enemy he couldn't remember all of them a voice whispered it sounded comforting… like Flay's kill them all he took aim
As soon as Sanders was lost Carter lost himself to anger "Michel!" he shouted
"Carter Don't-" but the lieutenant was too late Carter may not have been able to move but he still had his barrel pistols of which he proceeded to shoot the Wing Zero with, the Wing Zero retaliated and jumping to further his step he landed on the cockpit of Carters suit destroying it and the realization came to Duo and the lieutenant immediately… Heero was not in that suit
In fact Heero was half way too the bridge by the time Wing zero had made its first kill and after only a few wrong turns that he would later deny he found the bridge and somehow managed to sound convincingly like his normal intimidating self when he asked
"Who is in my suit?" the stunned silence made the seconds tick by longer as everyone in the room stared at the brown haired youth
"you mean it's not you?" the person speaking was the woman with her voice Heero chose not to speak as that was a question asked in shock and unfortunately it was at that moment that Wing Zero had decided to show its ultimate betrayal the buster rifle pointed straight at the bridge and powering up. it was official they were all about to die…
Chapter preview
"Since when did you reactivate the Zero system!"
"what's with the flower"
"It's not like they'll attack us tonight"
(And cliffhanger… so it's been one year and four months and thirty days since I last worked on this… Well I reread this and said man I need to revamp a bit so I'm gonna put it on hold for a bit while I do that…
Kidding kidding AnimeInTheBasement would kill me if I did that so I corrected my spelling and stuff and then put this chapter on so phew… this is now officially the longest chapter consisting of 4063 words {not including the disclaimer and authers notesthat just makes it 4529}so I think I did pretty good of course now that you're at the end of it you would most likely want to throttle me if I don't produce the next chapter soon… yeah anywho I found out that there are some people reading this fic who have never seen Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed that's alright put Gundam Wing on your watch list just because it is AWSOME however I do recommend that you watch Gundam Seed now or soon because I am skipping random scenes or highlighting moments and changing others so if you want to know the background chatter behind some emotional scene I am not going to be explaining sorry, also that scene with Flay agoni to write I wanted to kill her off soon see emotional scenes you need to watch the show for I'm gonna quit talking now so yeah they took away my review box and put a notepad thin in there now it's kinda sad and I totally forgot about the review song but review anyway and I'll make up a new one)
(P.S. I know Zechs has a new tallgese in enless waltz but I love the Epyon too much)