Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that I suck at battle scenes and the flight-suit Heero's wearing is the same one the Gundam boys wore when they fought against Libra. Also this Wing-Zero is not from Endless Waltz, it's the one that transforms into a fighter or mobile armour if you think it should be called that. Chapter two awaits.
"Speech"
'Thought,'
"Communications"
Freedom, Justice and Wing-Zero.
Heero's POV.
Parting from the kiss Lacus looked into my eyes with betrayal written all over her face. Asking what was wrong she buried her face in my chest sobbing into my tank top saying she was engaged to Athrun because both their father's were top members of the Plant Supreme Council. I told her there was nothing to worry about stating I was merely comforting her during her stay on the ship.
"All hands level 1 battle stations. All hands level 1 battle stations!"
"Stay here, I'll head to the bridge and see what's going on," I instructed jumping off the bed and out the door, literally running into Kira. "Kira where are you off to?"
"I've got to get to the hanger and be ready to deploy in the Strike. Shouldn't you be doing the same?" he asked rubbing the lump on his head.
"Actually I'm on my way to the bridge, I haven't decided if I'm going to fight yet," I answered.
"Come on Kira let's go!" shouted his friend Sai from an elevator platform.
"We're coming," Kira replied running to the platform. "Can you take Heero to the bridge with you?"
"Sure thing," Miriallia retorted.
Archangel Bridge.
"Captain Ramius, what's going on here?" I asked floating up to the captain's chair.
"The advanced fleet is engaged in a battle with the same enemy Nazca-class ship that's been pursuing us. Right now we're attempting to provide support," Murrue answered as the others readied the ships weapons. "I take it you haven't decided to fight with us?"
"Captain! The Law and Bernard have been sunk, there are only six mobile armour remaining! Lieutenant La Flaga's returning, his mobile armour's been damaged" Miriallia reported. "The Nazca-class is launching missiles at the Montgomery!"
"How many Mobilesuits are attacking?" I asked.
"Two Ginns and the Aegis," the radar operator replied.
"You're telling me that three Mobilesuits are over powering three of your ship!" I exclaimed feeling an explosion shack the ship. "I'll head out and support them in Zero,"
"That won't be necessary," Turning to the door the crew and I saw Flay Allster dragging Lacus onto the bridge. "I promise I will kill this girl. If they keep firing at my dad's ship I promise I will kill this girl. Tell them that!"
"Stop it Flay!" Sai shouted floating up to her from his station.
That's when an explosion illuminated the bridge. Turning back to the battle we all saw the remains of the Montgomery where the ship used to be. This sent Flay into a full out panic attack. Everyone but Natarle were too stunned to pay the approaching Ginns any attention. Even I couldn't move until Natarle floated up from the CIC and grabbed Kuzzey's headset, opening all communication channels.
"Ensign Badgiruel!"
"Attention ZAFT forces, this is the Archangel of the Earth Alliance Forces. Currently under the protective custody of this ship is supreme plant council chairman Siegel Clyne's daughter, Lacus Clyne. By chance we came across a life pod with her inside, we brought her aboard as a humanitarian gesture. However should you decide to attack this vessel we shall consider that an abandonment of your responsibility to protect Miss Clyne. We will then be forced to take matters into our own hands," finished with her statement Natarle closed the channel.
"I can't believe you'd use a rescued civilian as a hostage when you come under attack. Now they'll just come at you with more ships and Mobilesuits!" I shouted grabbing Natarle by her uniform collar. "What kind of military officer makes such cowardly decisions?"
"I suggest you calm down before I have security forcibly remove you from the bridge," Badgiruel retorted. "And take Miss Clyne with you,"
"There will be a day when your arrogance gets you killed, Ensign Badgiruel," I seethed running into her with my shoulder as I took Lacus off the bridge.
Later that night.
'That Nazca-class with continue following this ship as long as Lacus is still onboard. Wing-Zero is fully repaired and the cockpit's big enough for two people. I just hope Zero can get the outer hatch open and catapult working. At least they won't be able to pilot Zero if they throw me in a holding cell,' I smirk sliding off the bed to wake Lacus who was sleeping in a borrowed Earth Forces under shirt. "Lacus, Lacus wake up,"
"Mmm, yes, what is it Heero?" she asked groggily wiping at her eyes.
"Hurry and get dressed, I'm taking you back to the Nazca-class," I answered pulling the sheets off her body.
"But won't you get in trouble?" she asked fumbling with her dress.
"Not if I come with you," I replied grabbing my helmet from an overhead rack.
Once she was dressed we quietly ran down the corridor to the elevator platform only to get spotted by Kira's friends Sai and Miriallia. Without even convincing them, they agreed to help me take Lacus back to the Nazca-class, Miriallia even gave me the override codes for the hanger doors and catapult.
"You two sure you want to help us? Now that you've given me the codes we should be fine," I said as we made our way to the pilot's locker room.
"It might arouse suspicion if you're heading to the hanger with just Lacus, so if anyone asks you're just showing your Mobilesuit," Miriallia explained floating ahead of me.
"Just how smart are you?" I asked as we neared the locker room.
"I go in with Lacus, you boys just stay out here and keep watch. We don't need you peeking at her underwear anymore than you already have," Mir sneered.
"What's she mean by that?" Sai asked.
"I accidentally walked in on Lacus this morning when she was getting dressed. She said it didn't bother her if I watched or not. And by the way…," I stopped to lean in closer, dropping my voice to a whisper. "Miriallia was wearing blue,"
"You peeked?" Sai gasped.
"Again it was an accident. I was floating right behind her if you recall," I said putting on my helmet.
"You know what colour Lacus was wearing?" Sai asked in a whisper.
"Pink," I answered with a sad smile. "I also kiss her. Twice,"
"Lucky bastard," Sai fumed.
"I only kissed because I was trying to comfort her after what happened with Flay in the cafeteria. After the second kiss she told me she was engaged to Athrun Zala, the pilot of the Aegis," I replied irately.
"Oh, I see," he said with downcast eyes.
When the girls came out I had wonder what was going on in Sai's mind, of course anyone would wonder how she became pregnant with a huge bulge in the abdomen of her space suit.
"Are you coming back once Lacus is safely aboard the Nazca-class?" Miriallia asked as we floated up to Wing-Zero's cockpit.
"I'm not sure I'll be welcome back here after this so I don't know," I replied activating all Zero's systems. "Thanks for your help anyway,"
"I hope we see each other again soon," Lacus said hopefully.
"That might not be possible either," I reminded closing the cockpit and shutting my helmet visor. "You'd better get behind the seat and hold on tight, Zero's acceleration is powerful,"
Security alarms went off the second I guided Zero through the airlock to the catapult. That obviously meant Kira would be deployed to stop me, if they discovered Lacus was with me. Entering the codes Miriallia gave me the outer hatch opened allowing the catapult to shoot us out into space where I fired up Zero's thrusters, no doubt the Nazca-class had detected my launch as I veered away from the Archangel ignoring Natarle's repeated order for me to return to the ship.
Regular POV.
Vesalius Bridge.
"Commander, a Mobilesuit's just launched from legged ship, heading straight for us," Captain Ades reported, alarms blaring within the Vesalius.
"And what of the legged ship? Has it turned around to attack us as well?" Rau Le Creuset asked.
"No sir. And it appears this Mobilesuit isn't the X-105 Strike sir," Ades answered watching the magnified image above him change to live shot of an unfamiliar cockpit with Lacus sitting behind the pilot's seat. "Commander look,"
"Attention ZAFT forces, this is the pilot of the Mobilesuit Wing-Zero. I have Lacus Clyne with me and am prepared to return her to you if you cut your engines and open your hanger doors. After I am on board you are to withdraw from the area. Fail to comply with these demands and I will kidnap her myself. You have two minutes to decide,"
"Hello everyone,"
"It's Miss Lacus all right. Well Commander?" Ades asked. "Communications are open,"
"This is Commander Rau Le Creuset of the Vesalius, you are clear to enter," Le Creuset said. "Bring the ship to a halt and Open the doors Ades. I'm going down to meet them myself,"
"Yes sir," Ades replied.
Heero's POV.
"Before we dock you should know that your fiancée Athrun is onboard," I said slowing Zero down as we approached the hanger.
"Is that so? He must have been very angry when the Archangel's second offer announce that I was their hostage," Lacus responded sadly holding her robotic Haro toy close to her heart.
"I'm sorry for kissing you earlier. If I had known you were engaged I would have comforted you in some other way," I replied, making Zero do a 180 turn.
"You have nothing to apologise for Heero. Though I do consider Athrun a good friend and kind person like Kira and yourself, that is as far as my feelings for him go. So will you kiss me one last time before we part?" she asked retracting her visor.
"I don't think I should. It'll just make my leave that much harder for both of us," I answered, touching down at the rear of the hanger.
"I see," she said solemnly closing her visor again. "Although our time together was brief I deeply enjoyed your company,"
"As did I," I replied crawling out of Zero's open cockpit.
I probably expected to be greeted with guns pointed at me, instead the mechanics just stared up at me waiting for their idol to emerge. Two of their remaining Ginns stood on either side of the hanger the pilots standing on the cockpit hatches and towards the front on the right was X-303 Aegis where Athrun stood. It puzzled me for a moment that he was wearing a red flight-suit instead of the green suits the other pilots were dressed in. although it seemed like only elite pilots got to wear red flight-suits and uniforms.
"You coming out Lacus?" I asked reaching into the cockpit. "Athrun and the others are waiting,"
"Then I shouldn't disappoint them," she replied taking my hand.
Athrun's POV.
I watched closely as the pilot of this imposing Mobilesuits reached into the cockpit and helped Lacus step out and she appeared to be unharmed from what I could see, but why did she look sad before turning to wave at the deck crew? Had the crew of the legged ship do more than just use her as a hostage? I so badly wanted to beat the truth out of this guy but until he officially handed her over I had to show my respect, that's if he deserved any. Pushing off from the Aegis I made my way to the Mobilesuit as I personally requested to be the one to escort the pilot and Lacus to the commander. That's when I noticed the bulge in her space suit. My first conclusion was that she had somehow gotten pregnant since the last time I saw her but rational thinking kicked in as I realised it would be hard for her to put a space suit on with that billowing dress she always wore.
"Hello Athrun, it's very good to see you again," Lacus smiled filling me with relief.
"I'm glad to see you're all right. Please follow me and I'll take you to see the commander," I replied pushing off to a hatch on the same side of the hanger as my Aegis, looking over my shoulder to address the pilot. "I'd like to know your name if you don't mind,"
"Heero Yuy, and I'm not with the Earth Forces or ZAFT. My Mobilesuit and I were found in the debris belt the same time as Lacus' life pod. And I'm not a coordinator," Heero answered retracting his helmet visor as did Lacus and myself when we entered the seal elevator.
"I see. So you must employ some kind of advanced OS to operate your machine?" I inquired helping Lacus out of her space suit.
"You'll understand if I don't answer any questions regarding Zero's systems Athrun. What with you being a soldier of ZAFT and failing to hide your distaste for me, seeing how I just came from the Archangel," Heero replied. "Like Lacus, I was their guest and during the battle one officer took it upon herself to use Lacus as a hostage, without permission from the captain. And I doubt she would ever threaten your fiancée in that manner,"
"There's nothing to worry about Athrun, Heero was very kind to me just like Kira and his friends. And it was his idea to bring me back here," Lacus added stepping into her billowing dress. "I assure you that I was not ill treated while in his care. He defended all coordinators,"
"Then perhaps we should be thanking him for doing so," the elevator door parting to reveal Commander Le Creuset.
"Thanks, but I just hate racists and other such people who can accept someone else's differences," Heero replied removing his helmet.
Heero's POV.
Two days later.
After departing from Lacus on the Vesalius two days ago I notice three Laurasia-class ships and the Vesalius closing in on a gathering of Earth Forces ship in orbit around Earth, one of which was the Archangel. Or rather, I had intercepted ZAFT communications while hiding out in an abandoned ship with Zero in its Mobile Armour mode. With 15 Ginns the Aegis, Buster, Duel and Blitz the Earth Forces ships would easily fall and the Archangel would be in serious trouble with just with just the Strike and Mobius Zero at their disposal. My only problem was I an hour and a half away at top speed and from what I saw with the battle involving the advanced fleet I was going to be cutting it close. As I got closer I noticed the battle had been going for half an hour and half the Earth Forces fleet had been wiped out. That's when Zero's locked on to two transponder signals belonging to a pair of Mobilesuits that shouldn't have been there. Not believing what I was seeing I ran the signals through Zero's data base three times only to come up with the same results.
"So this explains why Rau Le Creuset didn't ask any questions about us doesn't it Zero?" I asked staring at the familiar schematics of Tallgeese and Epyon on the screen. "He must have known about you long before the Vesalius detected us up leaving the Archangel. Yeah I'm wondering how they got here too buddy, let's worry about that later. Right now we have to stop them from destroying the Archangel,"
Disclaimer: So what'd you think of me adding Tallgeese and Epyon? I put them in so I wouldn't have to change the original story line too much. This way Kira and Athrun will still get the Freedom and Justice. I'm also keeping that annoying Haro ball from having any time in the spotlight. Suggestions welcomed, reviews wanted so see you in chapter 3.