I would like to apologize for the long delay, I will not give you an excuses the main issue was because I had the rest of this story planned out and so I didn't focus on this as much as I should. It was my fault and I am to blame for your long wait. Now I hope you enjoy this chapter anyhow. Thanks Wilkins75
Chapter 25 Devil in the Church
The image of Relena's almost unrecognizable body lying on the top floor balcony was broadcasted across all of earth and space. The scene of her lying in a pool of blood and brain matter was a sight that could not easily been forgotten. The news of the former Queen of the world sent shock waves through the media and to make it even more of a news story a woman who had been recording the battle from her own top floor pent house had recorded Heero stepping out of the gundam and pulling the trigger. To the most of the world, this was the loss of one of the great leaders of the time and the apparent heir to the Office of the President. To her friends and family it meant more than that.
"We lost over fifty mobile suits including all of their crews." Reported Wufei as Zechs sat behind his desk just looking at the wall. "To make matters worse we now have a strange new ship and another gundam to deal with."
Wufei looked at Zechs who was the leader of the Preventers in all but name, Zechs had a look on his face which wouldn't seam normal for a man who had just lost his little sister. Instead he looked as if he was trying to figure out a complex problem sort of like a chess player looking at a board.
"Tell me Wufei why would you kill my sister?" inquired Zechs
"Sir?"
"If you were in Heero's place why would you kill Relena?" inquired Zechs in a distance voice, as if he was talking about why someone would order a different beer then normal at a bar. "Maybe because I am her brother I can't think of a reason to remove her from the field. Heero is anything then he is a planner, he had to have his reasons to remove her from play but why?"
"She is a leader and he did take out the other leaders," offered Wufei
"True but then why not go after Lady Une she was only a couple of buildings away with almost the same protective detail." Offered up Zechs
"No offense but it doesn't really matter now does it?" inquired Noin as she appeared in the doorway "Relena is dead, your sister is dead and she was killed by Heero."
"It does, Heero wouldn't risk making a hero for nothing so what is this plan?" inquired Zechs "Heero has been in front of us this whole time; we need to get in front of him."
"Sir, maybe we are over thinking this." offered Wufei "We have the forces, we could for the lack of better term rush Malta and take them once and for all."
"And how many lives will that cost us?" inquired Noin "We have lost so much already."
"And how many more people will die if we drag this out?" countered Wufei "The longer we wait the more time they have to build their forces up and the more lives it will cost in taking the island."
"Don't they have a very limited number of mobile suits so they only have a certain amount of forces to call upon." counted Noin as Wufei shook his head.
"We got some new recon photos and besides that white ship with it's at least one gundam there seems to be a second ship at Malta." reported Wufei as he pulled up the image on his computer tablet. It showed a low orbit photo of Malta and there sitting in the waters off Malta besides that white ship was another one. This one seamed slightly bigger with a single large center and two wing like structures in the water.
"Where did this ship come from?" inquired Noin
"We don't know but look on the beach, we have two more mobile suits standing there." Explained Wufei as he pointed toward the suits on the beach "Now these are likely gundams as well which brings their total up to seven to our five."
"Looks like the white ship is loading something up?" stated Noin as she looked at the photo
"Likely they are unloading stuff." reported Wufei as he looked at the photo, there were dozens of small boats moving back and forth between the ship and shore.
"No, see the boats heading toward the ship are full why the ones heading back are empty." Pointed out Noin as Wufei blinked as he noticed where the boats where for the first time.
"I guess but what are they loading up?" inquired Wufei "The rebels don't have anything important that could be loaded onto ships like that."
"Civilians." stated Zechs "They are going to leave."
"Then we have to stop them, the civilian population will not stand if we let the murders of Relena get away." stated Wufei as Zechs slowly nodded his head.
"Move the forces into position based off our old battle plans." Ordered Zechs before looking at Noin "Can you draw up possible skill types of these new gundams based off what you see?"
"I will need some more detailed photo's but yes." confirmed Noin "But what about Miss Relena's funeral?"
"She is going to lie in state for a couple of days at least and by then all this will be over," confirmed Zechs as he tried not to think about the state funeral which was currently being planned for his sister. She would be lied to rest beside their parents in the tombs back in the Sanc Kingdom, maybe in the Kingdom of Peace she would finally find peace.
Little did he know that the Sanc Kingdom was far from peaceful, the whole Kingdom was in a state of mourning. All the flags where lowered to half-staff and black curtains where hanging in the windows of private homes. All the government buildings where closed and most of the civilian government was working toward preparing for a funeral which they knew would be coming soon. One of those buildings which were closed to the public was the world mobile suit museum which contained one of every mobile suit used in the past war.
It was hoped that placing the museum in a county known for peace that it would be a symbol of all the events which happened in the world which led to it's almost destruction by the falling Space Battleship Libra. The museum had multiple exhibits from the war ranging from complete mobile suits to pieces of uniforms. The heart of the museum was a large central room where the rebuilt models of all the gundams stood. In one room there was nine gundams with room to place the active gundams.
Like any museum, it had guards which would patrol the area to make sure no one would break in, however those guards currently lied in pools of their own blood.
"This is Phantom 8 we are clear," said a black clad woman with a smoking pistol in her hand.
"Alright, let's begin." ordered the Phantom team leader as they moved on to the second phase of one of the strangest missions they had ever carried out. Phantom squad was designed to be an anti-terror and anti-war attack dog, something everyone would fear but the mission given to him or her by their commanders was something new. "Open the door and let's get this loaded up."
With that, a large door built into the side of the main room opened up allowing a mobile suit flatbed carrier to roll up to their target. Standing there in the darkness was a gundam which while deactivate and military wise useless carried great historical value, Gundam Wing.
"So this is Admiral's Yuy first gundam?" inquired a phantom operator as she looked up at the gundam, it looked like a more primitive version of Wing Angel and Wing Zero.
"Yes, and it is our job to take it and highjack a transport shuttle to get it into space." explained the Phantom Commander.
"So we are an museum piece recovery team now?" inquired another Phantom as the back of the truck moved lifted up so that the gundam could be loaded on to it.
"In a way, the idiots here will see Heero as a traitor and the like so High command want us to grab it and bring it home. Hell I don't even think Admiral Yuy knows we are grabbing it," reported the commander before checking his watch. "We have two hours to load this up and get it to the space port."
"What about the other teams?" inquired another Phantom
"They have their own missions," countered the commander, they all knew that the Phantoms had spread themselves out across the world and now they were pulling out. Every team but his had been given what was called in the core 5th freedom. Which meant they could do anything they wanted to do, destroy anything they wanted and kill anyone as long as they meet their mission goal, which was to leave Earth and head into space. The Phantoms would be the first out followed by the Angels and when both of them had left this Earth behind the storm would hit.
It was an old stone church which dated back to the Italian Renaissance, the paints on the walls had been done by the students of some of the greatest masters so the work was amazing. While small it still being used by the local villagers however none of them where in there at the moment. Instead, an outsider was sitting in the lead pew kneeling in prayer. Sitting in front of the stone alter was a giant photo of Relena Peacecraft, surrounded by flowers and candles. None of the electrical lights where on and the only light came from the multiple candles.
Only person in the church was dressed in black as he knelt in the first pew with his head bowed and his hands folded in prayer.
"God, please take Relena Peacecraft into your arms and lead her into your kingdom that awaits all whom know your light." Prayed the gundam pilot Duo Maxwell "May you forgive her sins and welcome her home into the kingdom of heaven."
The sound of footsteps on the stone floors did not cause him any worries since multiple people had come in and out of the church since he had arrived. The footsteps stopped directly behind him and whoever it was did not move to sit down and pray. This caused Duo to look over his shoulder only to see Heero Yuy standing there dressed in a pair of jeans, green shirt and black jacket.
"Heero?" inquired Duo stunned to see him in the church.
"Duo." said Heero as he moved across the walkway from Duo to the other pew and sat down. Duo simply blinked as he went to where he normally kept his gun, only to find it empty.
"Damn." cursed Duo
"You never bring a weapon when you are in a church and now it is coming to bite you," explained Heero with a small grin as he looked up at the painting behind the Alter. There above the alter was a image of the last judgement where God would stand in judgment of all the souls of man, banishing some to hell while others went to heaven. "I always wondered how God weights a person actions, does the fact that I saved millions from death when Libra fell make up for all the lives I have taken."
"There is no way to explain this Heero, you killed a woman of peace." said Duo as Heero looked at him as if he had just said the stupidest thing in the world.
"I expected more from you then that." Countered Heero "You know that Relena was driven by hate for coordinators because she believes they took me from her. The woman was obsess; she flew into a battlefield to give me a letter. True maybe I could have given her more time to come around but you preventers had a whole space station rebel to end coordinators. Also that station used a civilian station as a shield; there was no more time to give after that."
"Even if you're right, she is a symbol of peace." countered Duo "You made an example of her, there is no chance for peace."
"There wasn't any chance of peace in the first place," countered Heero "I can only set the field for what has to come next."
"What comes next?" countered Duo
"Duo have you ever heard the saying those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?" inquired Heero
"Yes." confirmed Duo wondering where this was going.
"Well my history is going to repeat itself here." explained Heero as he looked up at the last judgement painting. Heero took a deep breath before looking down "I am sorry it came to this Duo but this is going to be the last time we talk and I must ask you to give a message to Zech."
"What do you mean?" inquired Duo
"We are leaving soon but there are a few last things which I must do before I say goodbye to this world once and for all," explained Heero "Judgement day for all of us is coming."
"Yes, I believe it is," confirmed Duo
"Duo, I know that it is highly likely that you Preventers will attack Malta before we leave but I beg you not to go," stated Heero as he showed kindness to his old comrade in arms. "Your child needs a father and if you come they will not hold back."
"They?" inquired Duo "You're not going to be there."
"No." confirmed Heero as he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Duo. Duo looked down at the paper and saw that it was a set of longitude and latitude. Judging from the location it would be in Northern Europe maybe by the Baltic Sea. "Tell Zechs that in 36 hours I'll be waiting for him there, if he doesn't arrive within two hours I'll be gone once and for all."
"What are you going to do?" inquired Duo as Heero walked to the door of the church. He flung the door opened and looked out into the darkened city.
"I am going to do what I have to do." confirmed Heero before looking up at the sky "Sadly that is watching this world burn, I am going to have to cripple this world to protect my own. There is no other way, I am sorry."
"Heero what are you going to do?" inquired Duo as Heero took a breath.
"I will not tell you that but I will tell you that you should get everyone off world within 36 hours the colonies are going to be the safest place right now." confirmed Heero as he walked out of the church into the night.
Instantly Duo reached for his cell phone and dialed a number from memory.
"Zechs, this is Duo I just saw Heero." said Duo into the phone "They are leaving Earth in 36 hours."
"We expected as much." confirmed Zechs on the other end of the line.
"Yes, but Heero isn't going to be a Malta he is going to be somewhere else to watch the world burn as he says. He wants you to meet him there." Explained Duo as he read the location Heero had given him. "Do you know where that is?"
"Yes." Confirmed Zechs
"And is it anywhere important?" inquired Duo
"It is where Wing Zero and Epyon first fought each other all those years ago." explained Zechs "Heero is challenging me to a dual."
"Are you going to take him up?" inquired Duo
"I have too, Heero will likely have the controls to whatever will cause the World to Burn as he said it." Explained Zechs as his thoughts turned to the other battles he had with Heero, most of all the last one on Libra. Heero had spared his life because it would make Relena sad but Heero had just killed Relena so this was going to be a fight to the death.