Author's Note: A long ass chapter awaits you, action packed and filled with death galore! Never have so many named characters died in one of my chapters but I'm going for a new record this time around. Don't know what the record is but I'm going to try and break it anyway.

Some of you are wondering about what the hell happened to Duo last chapter. Well, as I told KO, that's for me to know and for you all to find out. Later. When I feel like telling you. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Sacrifice for Your Beliefs

Trowa gritted his teeth tightly as he struggled to hold on to the perch he had grabbed, a long fall a promise should he slip.

After being bowled over by Astaroth and that statue, all three of them had fallen back and onto the glass dome. After crashing through the glass, Trowa had grabbed onto the rim of the dome, trying to ignore the piercing pain of glass cutting into the palm of his hands as he held on to dear life.

It didn't really help that Astaroth had managed to grab onto his legs and the guy's weight was making this increasingly difficult.

At least that statue was out of the way. A peek down head revealed the shattered remains of it on the lobby floor down below. It was a grim reminder of what he would become if he let go but unlike the statue he would be more of a splatter than a pile of rubble.

"Better not let go, asshole," Astaroth grunted from below.

"At this rate, we're both going to die," Trowa hissed back, eyeing the blood that was leaking from his hands and slipping down his arms.

"And you think I'm gonna let go?!" Astaroth nearly shrieked back. "No way in hell man!"

"Then what do you propose?" Trowa snapped back. "I can't hold us up here for long and you're too heavy."

"What about that old man?" Astaroth demanded.

"He ditched us a while ago," Trowa reported back. "It's just you and me now. Either one of us dies or we both do. It's your call, really."

"The only one whose gonna die around here is you!" Astaroth snarled. "I ain't gonna die here. No way, no how."

"I take it you've chosen the latter option," Trowa said dryly.

"Hell no!" Astaroth retorted. Shifting his hold around Trowa's legs, the scaly one began to slowly climb up his body. "You said one of us was gonna die," Astaroth grunted. "Well, you're right about that one only it's gonna be you."

Trowa slipped on his grip due to Astaroth's movements, only managing to hold on by the ends of his fingers. Because his hold on Trowa wasn't as tight as it was before, Astaroth slipped all the way down to Trowa's ankles, a yelp of surprise coming out of his mouth.

Doing his best not to let go of the edge, Trowa squirmed his legs and managed to free one of his feet, leaving the other as Astaroth's only connection to survival. Then Trowa kicked his foot down into Astaroth's face, trying to dislodge him and lighten the load that his fingers were holding up. However, Astaroth was stubborn in not letting go and held on tightly, taking all the blows Trowa rained down on his face.

Taking a new approach, Trowa stopped kicking down and swung his foot in an arc, the heel of his shoe getting the scaly one right in his throat. That was just what the uinbanged young man needed as the other gasped for air and lost his hold, plummeting down into oblivion.

Astaroth screamed in rage as his opponent and the ceiling drew further and further away from him as he fell. Believing that death was imminent, he curled himself into a ball and grew elongated spikes all around him until he was a small ball of spikes. If he didn't survive this, then if that asshole fell, he'd fall right on to him and get a nasty surprise.

The balled Astaroth slammed onto the hard floor and a large spider web of cracks grew out from his landing sight, the floor cratering beneath him.

High above, now with less weight to hold up, Trowa breathed a sigh of relief. All he needed to do now was pull himself up and he'd be safe…

…and then he lost his grip.

It was almost surreal, in a way. Never before had he felt so weightless, as if gravity had no hold on him, like he was an astronaut. Even though the air around him billowed, that did nothing to tear apart the illusion and he liked it that way.

But like hell it was going to end like this!

He called out a cry for help, for any help, from the closest plants and, lo and behold, they responded. They raced up on the lobby walls and jumped down through the hole in the glass dome, reaching him in record time.

In less than a second, he weaved all the roots together to form a rather crude parachute but it was miraculously slowing him down. He was still falling but at a much slower rate, the floor not rushing up to him like it had but still coming towards him at an alarming rate.

When he landed, he felt a sharp twinge of pain in his right leg and he collapsed down onto the floor. Gasping for air, he nearly burst out in laughter; he was alive!

Then the floor under him and the balled form that was Astaroth collapsed beneath him and he fell one more time.

---

Heero wasn't doing so well against the weird pale boy with the clawed hands. Without a suitable weapon in hand to aid him, the teen had to resort to dodging and evading each swipe the other threw at him.

And it was a good thing too that he did dodge. He had witness those hands tear into the walls and leave very ominous claw marks in them and the boy was not the worse for wear.

Pike, on the other hand, wasn't much of a talker. He was more focused on the rage he had for this barbarian and the way he destroyed such masterly crafted works. Had he no soul? Well, he was going to make him pay for it if he would only hold still!

Ducking under one particularly vicious swipe, Heero rolled and sprang towards a door, opening it and scanning the room inside for a possible weapon. A clawed hand broke through the wooden barricade and Heero leapt into the room, pulling the door closed behind him and smirking at the thumping sound as the boy hit up against it.

That smirk soon fading as the boy began tearing the door apart and Heero frantically looked for something, anything that could help him out. Much to his luck, he was in a break room and a small one at that. There wasn't much here but a boiling pot of coffee and that was about it.

By now, Pike had torn the door to shreds and was standing in the way of way of Heero's only escape, grinning ferally at his cornered prey.

Acting quickly, Heero grabbed the pot of coffer and flung it at the pale boy, gleeful as the boy shrieked in pain as he was drenched in the boiling liquid. At least he could say it added some color to him. Perhaps if got a suntan…

Heero twisted out of the way at the last minute as a clawed hand swiped down at him and smashed into the counter next to him.

Sliding against the nearby refrigerator to put some distance between him and the other, Heero slammed opened the door of the large appliance, smacking the flat surface against the pale boy who looked momentarily stunned for a second before grabbing the door and tearing it off its hinges. Holding onto one end of the door, Heero shoved the obstacle between him and the pale boy forward and forced the other against the counter.

Despite having the ability to tear through walls like they were paper and bring life to the most beautiful things man ever created, Pike was having some problems here as he struggle against the fridge door. He didn't have the strength to crush the thing nor was he able to get a hand far enough away to try and break it.

Whereas he didn't have the strength needed to get out of this the force his way out of this, he did have the flexibility to squeeze his way out. That was precisely what he did as he practically flattened himself and slipped down onto the floor, the refrigerator door above him like a ceiling.

The barbarian was vulnerable now as Pike could see his legs so clearly. However, before he could make his next move, the door slammed into him from above and flattened him onto the floor. Growling, Pike shoved the door off and behind him, getting to his feet quickly and ready to tear something apart.

What he got for his efforts was a punch to the face and that was enough to send him backwards into the refrigerator door that was leaning slatted against the counter and cabinets in the break room. Dazed by the unexpected blow, he slid down to the floor and let his head loll back and thump against the door.

Hearing a scraping sound he looked up just into time to see the barbarian push the rest of the refrigerator down onto him.

After hearing only a squeak of surprise, Heero panted as he stared balefully at the toppled fridge, as if daring for it to move. When nothing happened he stumbled away and clutched his throbbing, thumbless hand. For too long he had ignored it and he couldn't do so for much longer. But he still had to catch up with the girls and that was something he wasn't looking forward too.

---

With an expert motion, Romafellor loaded his pump action shotgun, preparing himself for a fight. Having retreated back to his office with the intention of taking control of this mess, he had come to a determination that if he was going to get anywhere, he'd have to use lethal force.

So be it.

---

Trowa shook his head, trying to get the cobwebs out of it as he picked himself up. Looking around at the concrete basement floor that he now found himself in, he then looked up at the hole in which he had fallen through.

It wasn't a second after that a sharp pain from his leg shot through his body and he had to let himself plop back down onto the ground. Looking down at the offending leg, he nearly growled at the grisly sight it produced. Damn it, it was broken. Probably got it from the fall, the first one at least. This was just great, perfect.

A very long spike suddenly impaled the broken leg and continued forth into the floor. Trowa couldn't keep a yelp of pain from escaping and when he glared up at his attacker, he felt his heart sank.

Astaroth.

And he looked just like the cat who had gotten the canary.

"Got ya," the scaly taunted. "You ain't going anywhere."

---

"YEE-HAW!!!!!"

Solo had never been to a rodeo before, never saw a bucking bronco, or a bull riding contest in his life, but he supposed that it would be similar to this.

Here they were, the two strongest teens on Earth, one of them a stubborn city kid riding onto of the other's back, the other being a mindless beast who was in the process of trying to buck him off of him.

And the blond had never had so much fun in his life.

Bursting through yet another wall, Sigmund crashed into a maze of cubicles, knocking every one in sight trying to dislodge the blond headed son of a bitch on his back. Solo, however, only crowed in delight and kicked his legs into Sigmund's sides to get a violent reaction out of him.

He got his reaction alright, but Solo thought that maybe he should mix it up a bit as Sigmund mildly calmed down. Reaching a hand out, the blond snagged a computer and then smashed the appliance against the back of Sigmund's head. That may have been a bad idea as Sigmund toppled forwards and slid against the littered floor, the unexpected stop throwing the blond off the giant and into a pile of cubicle remains.

"Whew, what a ride!" Solo exclaimed, picking himself up. Wanting to do it again, he looked over at the giant in disappointment as the other was charging at him again.

"Olé!" Solo proclaimed as he slid to a side, Sigmund running right past him. The giant spun back around and charged at him again but this time, Solo ducked and kicked the giant's feet right out from under him. "Have a nice trip and see ya next fall!" Solo commented as he danced out of the way from a large hand seeking to grab him.

Jumping above the hulk, Solo landed a piledriver on the other's back, Solo reveling in the sound of a spine snapping beneath his elbow. Knowing that Sigmund was just going to heal from it, Solo took the opportunity to cause more damage. Wrapping his arms around Sigmund's waist as best he could, Solo dug his feet into the floor and lifted the hulk up and above his head, performing a suplex as he rammed Sigmund's head into the floor.

There was a snapping sound, as if something was breaking or snapping back together and Solo found that Sigmund had taken control again. The giant, somehow twisting back onto his feet, grabbed Solo and charged at a wall, slamming the blond into it but not quite breaking through it. Pulling back and taking Solo with him, Sigmund lifted the blond high up into the air and slammed him down onto the floor harshly, Solo's body bouncing against the hard surface.

Roaring, Sigmund left Solo where he lay only to raise his large fists up into the air and then slam them down one at a time onto him, raining blow after massive blow onto the helpless blond.

"This…may…have…been…a…bad…idea…" Solo managed to gasp out in-between blows.

It was at that time that Heero came onto the scene. The Japanese youth didn't even pause to think about it; he just rushed into the fray, picking up a piece of cubicle wall on his way and using it as a club on the hulk.

Unfazed by Heero's attempts to get the creature's attention, Sigmund ignored him until he got a surprising hit on his face. Only emitting a grunt, Sigmund didn't even turn his body as his large hand wrapped around Heero's torso, the fingers squeezing and bones giving way underneath them.

Without even looking away from Solo, Sigmund threw Heero away, the teen smashing through a wall. Unlike the blond lying on the floor, Heero wasn't able to handle such pressure and strain on his body so it was little surprise that his broken body lay crumpled in the hallway beyond, his pupils widening as his vision grew darker and darker until all he saw was darkness.

Seeing all this from the corner of his amber-colored eyes, Solo took advantage of the opportunity presented to him and grabbed a hold of Sigmund's hand, the one closest to him at least, and jerked it downward, catching the giant off guard and forcing him to stumble. Throwing his legs up, Solo rammed his feet into Sigmund's face. Then, still holding onto Sigmund's hand and his feet planted in his face, the blond flipped himself then plopped his ass down onto the back of Sigmund's neck.

Wrapping his thighs and legs around the swollen neck, Solo threw punch after punch onto Sigmund's unprotected head. However, Sigmund reacted quickly and quickly grabbed the blond and plucked him off his perch. Not pausing, the giant threw the blond right at the hole that Heero's body had previously made.

Solo's flight was stopped abruptly as he slammed into a wall, not going through it but not falling off of it either. Light from a collection of windows shined in his face and he squinted his eyes shut to try and block the light. This was definitely not going how he had wanted it to.

Cracking his eyes open, he got a good look at Heero's body and he couldn't help but feel awful about it. What was this Chinese asshole doing here in the first place? What the hell did he think he was doing back there?

"Heero!" a voice shrieked. Turning his head to a side, he saw Dorothy and Relena stumbling onto the scene, the latter looking at the corpse on the floor near-hysterically.

This was one big, fat, happy reunion, wasn't it?

Hearing the heavy footsteps that signaled Sigmund's approach, Solo turned to look back at the monster, not even mustering the energy to shout at the girls to get away.

---

Things were going badly, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Perched up but a long ass spike that had been planted into the ground, Trowa could do nothing more than hang from it as Astaroth had his way with him. The scaly one was practically carving up his body with a long, thin spike and blood was everywhere.

Three guesses whose blood that happened to be.

"We're just making you pretty, aren't we?" Astaroth teased as he drew another long, bleeding scratch into Trowa's torso, just another of the many he had been accumulating recently.

"You have one fucked up sense of beauty," Trowa spat at the scaly one, blood flecking off his lips and onto Astaroth.

A harsh punch in his gut was his reward. It wasn't as if the other was disgusted by his blood being on him. He was just doing this for kicks now, wasn't he?

"Such a dirty mouth," Astaroth mock-admonished. "Just have to clean it out, I guess."

"And how do you fucking plan on accomplishing that?" Trowa half-snarled.

Without a word, Astaroth simply plunged the spike he was holding into Trowa's shoulder, not stopping until it had gone all the way through his body and exited it. The pain was too much, too much that he couldn't muster a word.

"Aw, where's that mouth now?" Astaroth taunted. Pulling the spike out, he continued, "Maybe we can find it again, eh?" With that, he plunged the spike back into Trowa's body, right in his thigh to be precise, the spike accidentally cutting the artery there.

The pain was nothing but a dull throb now but Trowa remained resilient. But he had lost so much blood…there was only so much he could lose before…

Coughing, he spat out a mouthful of blood. Well that was a bad sign. He'd heard from somewhere that coughing up blood was a sign of dieing. Heh…wasn't the first time he'd come to this point but he wasn't just going to lay here like a pig for the slaughter if he had his way about it.

Forcing his head up to look Astaroth in the eye, he thought that maybe he wouldn't be going out alone either…

Taking hold of all the remaining power in his body, his blasted it down into the ground, sewing the seeds for his great finale. He was going to bring life back into this place, even if it cost him his life.

Astaroth was unaware of what he was up to as he said, "Looks like you still have some spirit in you. Good! Lets see if we can't break it…"

"Break it?" he chuckled. "You can break it, probably. But definitely not before I break every bone in your body."

"And how are ya gonna accomplish that?" Astaroth sneered.

Feeling that pleasant sensation as something slowly began crawling up his leg, Trowa smiled. "You'd be surprise what a wild animal can do when caught in a corner. Desperation is a very powerful tool if you can use it."

Frowning, Astaroth demanded, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Who has the dirty mouth now?" Trowa teased back.

Growling, Astaroth shoved his spike back into Trowa's body but something wasn't quite right about it. Scowling, Astaroth pulled it out, actually having a bit of trouble doing so, but when he did, no one was more surprised than him to see green blood leaking out from the wound.

And then he saw it; bark-like roots slithered up, around, and all over the other's body, slowly transforming the plant wielder into some kind of tree thing.

And he still had that damn smile on his face!

Suddenly, two large woody protrusion sprouted from the ground and slammed into him from either side. He gasped in pain but soon found the air in his body was slowly being driven out of him as the wood-things-whatever they were mounted pressure on his body.

He grew spikes out of his body to try and force them away but it had no effect other than to get him more stuck in this dire predicament.

"Who's gonna break who first?" Trowa finally spoke up, his face having not changed at all.

With crushing force, Astaroth's skeleton was flattened and his organs caught in it. Blood sprang out of every orifice on his body and he could only stare at his unlikely killer before his body was overcomed by all the plant life that was growing throughout the basement.

Closing his eyes, Trowa was soon consumed by his evergrowing creation and knew no more.

---

The hole in the wall wasn't large enough for Sigmund to do so the beast only broke more of it down so he could fit.

"Come ta finish the job, huh?" Solo drawled. "Gonna take more than you ta kill me."

Sigmund snorted at him and leveled a punch into the blond's body, sinking him further into the wall.

"That all ya got?" Solo taunted.

Another punch was his reply but still the blond persisted.

"You hit like a giiiirrrrrllllll…" he slurred.

This time Sigmund snarled at him and gave a quick one-two combo. Practically through the wall by now, plaster and all sorts of crap covering the blond, Solo still wouldn't give up.

"Take ya best shot," he gasped out. "…Motherfucker…"

"Stop it!" a feminine voice cried out and the two superpowered teens turned their heads to face Relena who was staring them down, tears streaming down her face. "Just stop it please!" she screamed.

Turning away from Solo, Sigmund slowly began to make his way towards the defiant girl. Relena remained put, refusing to move even when Dorothy was trying to pull her away. Sigmund didn't make it to her, however, as a gunshot tore through the air and Sigmund nearly fell over from the impact.

From his position, Solo saw the gaping wound in the giant's back and marveled at how it was slowly closing up. Turning his head towards the origin of the gun shot, he saw an old man with a shotgun at the other end of the hallway, right in front of the glass windows.

"Want to take a real man?" the old man stated, "or are you not done playing with the children yet?"

Solo could barely make it out but he could've sworn that he heard Relena whisper "Romafellor" and he figured she must be referring to this new asshole. Why, when he got out of this wall, he was going to show him a thing or two…

Sigmund, after turning to face this Romafellor, just went berserk at the sight of this man, roaring like a crappy monster from a horror movie. He wasn't even done roaring when Romafellor shot him again, pumping the shotgun in his hands to remove the shell in the chamber.

As this new wound began to heal, Sigmund charged Romafellor, the old man moving back down the adjacent hallway he had come from. In an effort to get to him sooner, Sigmund crashed through the corner of the hallway, plaster and debris erupting into a whitish cloud in front of him. That was when he received a point-blank shotgun blast in his chest, stumbling back from the sheer force of it.

It didn't faze Sigmund for long as he let out a growl and shot his fist out, directly hitting Romafellor and sending him flying in the air towards a boardroom at the end of the hallway. Romafellor's body crashed through the doors and landed on the board table with a sickening smack, the old man coughing up a clot of blood as he laid still, still alive miraculously.

Meanwhile, Solo was mustering up the energy to pull himself off his seat in the wall and he found it surprising that he was actually gasping for breath when he succeeded. This fight was taking a lot out of him, more than any of the others he had been in.

Fisting a hand, Solo readied it and waited for Sigmund to appear again which he did not disappoint. Solo let him have it, his fist slamming into the side of Sigmund's face, his cheekbones collapsing beneath the blond's might.

Sigmund twisted his body and threw his large fist at Solo, connecting and sending the blond flying back. However, Solo was prepared for this as he flipped his body and landed on his feet, crouching for only second before he pushed forth with his legs right back at Sigmund. He was a virtual blur and his next blow landed true as this time it was Sigmund's turn to go flying backwards.

Unfortunately for Sigmund, it was straight through the windows behind him.

Solo caught himself at on the former windows' edges but got a good view as Sigmund plummeted below. Whether it was bad luck or something else, Solo winced as Sigmund smashed right through the top of the second helicopter, the aircraft exploding and falling down with the hulk like a limp insect.

Down on the paved ground, the concrete that covered the city's floor heaved upwards, much to the blond's confusion. That confusion was short lived, though, as an enormous root erupted through the pavement, not only shaking the building he and the girls were in but causing other twisting roots to break out of the building's base.

"Aw shit," Solo swore as he spun around and raced over to the two girls, one who was kneeling above the dead form of his boyfriend. "No time," he interrupted as he picked up both girls and ran back towards the broken windows, trying to gather as much speed as he could before he leapt out of the portal.

Time seemed to slow down as the blond hovered over the streets far below, slowly dropping in attitude as gravity began to take hold of him again. His momentum propelled him forth though, and he continued in an arcing flight path, maneuvering his feet ahead of him so that he crashing through a set of windows belonging to one of the under-construction buildings.

He curled his body as best as he could while holding two screeching girls so that he could roll and lay flat on the dusty floor, using his body to cover the two teen girls as things really began to pick up outside.

---

The entire Romafellor Building rumbled and trembled as the makings of a large tree ruptured from beneath it. The walls of the building bulged outwards and blew apart into a rain of debris and shards of glass.

Inside, a long, bark incrusted root shot up and broke through floor after floor in it's journey to the sky, widening and gaining girth the further it went. It wasn't alone though as other roots identical to it emerged from the floor of the building's lobby, wrapping around everything as well as themselves to begin the formation of a new life organism.

Lying on the board table where he had been left, Romafellor watched as the bark covered roots wriggled their way through the floor and wrapped around everything in sight, steadily making their way towards him. He watched it all with a disgruntled eye and didn't say a single word as the roots covered him and removed him from this world permanently.

The outer walls of the building were breaking into large chunks and sliding down the sides of the gigantic tree, the top of the building crumbling as the trunk of the tree finally formed and began sprouting branches. Tumbling down the side of the tree was the large logo of the Romafellor Corporation, the metal symbol bending out of shape and falling apart, becoming nothing but a scarp heap of metal when it reached the ground.

Enormous roots broke through the streets and into the surrounding buildings, causing them to toppling down as if showing the resilience of nature against the force of humanity. The tree's branches spread out in all directions, green leaves slowly growing from their ends until the entire top of the tree was covered with a large leafy hat.

It was the greatest tribute Trowa had left as his spirit passed from this realm.

A spark of life in the middle of a land of death and misery, a new symbol of hope that would always trump the "superiority" of mankind and its futile attempts to control that which was uncontrollable.

Author's Note: Bet you didn't expect this, did you? Two pilots' deaths in one chapter! This goes to show you not to expect anything when it comes to my stuff. No one's safe in one of my fics. Remember that for future reference.