After Colony: Revelation

Verse VI

"Do it."

"But—but—"

"Do not make me repeat myself," Dorian Adelphie said coolly to one of his head neurosurgeons. The man in the lab coat frowned and nodded his head reluctantly. He waved to a nurse in the background of the dimly lit room. She walked into the next room, her heels clicking as she went. Adelphie crossed his arms, tapping his ringed middle finger against the dark fabric of his suit.

A gurney was rolled in from the connecting maximum security cell next to the medical wing, though the cell wasn't needed. Edan had been in a state of almost suspended animation since the night at the manor about five days prior. War, the Project Red Horse subject, needed to be reactivated before the approaching rebel attack and Isabella was nowhere around to do it the easy way. Instead, Adelphie had to transport his surgery staff to the Lunar base so that they could manually activate the central chip.

"This is doctor Thrice," the neurosurgeon said into a microphone hanging down from the ceiling after a nurse clicked it on. "At 09:00 we will manually restart the central chip implant." Three doctors, two nurses, and Adelphie remained in the room for the next eighteen minutes, some going about the various tasks that had to be completed before they could commence. At precisely 9 o'clock in the morning, Edan was strapped into the operation chair, and scalpels were prepared. They would reduce as much pain as possible… but they couldn't make it painless.

Adelphie watched through narrowed eyes as his first successful project went through the very unnatural process. For years, he had to conduct his research without the scientific community watching. His head surgeon, Thrice, had lost everything in a fire, leaving him with just the clothes on his back and his one daughter. And, of course, the enormous amount of debt he had racked up to the wrong sort of people. Adelphie had the means to solve all of Thrice's problems, if, and only if, Thrice produced some progress.

Well, he did, though it cost him his only daughter. Thrice, when he proved that the brain could be manipulated cybernetically if it was done so at an early age, gave himself a lifetime of security. Isabella came next, but only after Edan had survived for two years. After more trials, and more failures—some died, many turned out to be vegetables, and some… some now lived the rest of their lives as inpatients at psychiatric wards.

Vince DeBordaris was entered into CSO's trials after he was captured by Mariemaia's army. He was out of control, and CSO pushed to have him sent to their facilities. He was perfect for their main project. So, he received a new life, one that frequently involved the very beautiful and wealthy Moira.

When the previous subject of the Black Horse Project managed to kill himself, Adelphie and his board of experts had to choose a new person to be Famine's replacement. Duo Maxwell, a Gundam pilot who had proved to have extraordinary mental capacities, was chosen upon his capture.

Plague, War, Famine, and Death. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were under Adelphie's control. He had not only an army behind him, but the four who could reshape the face of Earth and all of mankind. He had the ability to destroy everything and rebuild it as he pleased.

Some probably considered him crazy.

But he had the ability, the resources, and the drive, so why not take over and play God? "War has been officially activated," Thrice said and stepped back. Edan's eyes shot open and she tried to struggle against her bonds, but it was useless. Breathing heavy, she calmed down as Adelphie went to her side and stared down at her.

"No more outbursts will be tolerated, do you understand? I am your Father, your Mother, your Brother and Sister, I am your Lord and Master. You are my Servant and you will obey me." The middle aged Prime Minster said, his voice smooth as silk. He waited for any sign that she had registered what he had said at all. No, there was nothing. Not even the slightest flicker in her eyes. That was exactly what he wanted. She could have no free will of her own if her efficiency was to be maximized. "Make sure to lock up all of the documentation."

Adelphie left the room with no other exchange of words. The surgeons finished with their procedures and disconnected their microphones.

As the others cleaned up, Thrice remained by Edan's side, stroking her hair. "I'm sorry," he muttered, "so sorry." It was the same thing he always said when he finished an operation on her. She stared back at him with her lifeless eyes. She had no idea who he was, no recollection of whatever happier times they might have had—if there were any intermixed through her years of neglect and abuse. Thrice sighed and shook his head, letting his hands drop to his side.

In reality, she had stopped being his daughter years ago. She was just an experiment now. He simply felt it was his obligation to apologize each time. The lights were shut off and she was left alone, in the dark, to keep her from experiencing the excoriating pain that light would sometimes cause after an operation. Well, hopefully they wouldn't need to use her until she had proper time to recover.

000

"Isabella," Heero called out to the girl who was blaring music in the Gundam hanger, "Isabella." She looked up from her mobile workstation and quickly muted the music, cutting off the sound coming from the speakers connected to her computer.

"Um, yes?" She adverted her gaze and messed with her pony tail. She looked fidgety, as she probably should. Duo and Isabella thought that it would be particularly funny to open one of the backhouse windows that was above one of the doors and dump a bucket of ice water on whoever walked out—whoever being Trowa or Quatre, maybe Rashid or Heero. Of course, with their wonderful luck, who was the first person to walk out onto the back patio to go do some meditation? Wufei.

It took all three of the pilots to keep Wufei from hunting down the two pranksters with his sword. The sight of the wet, Chinese male, his dark hair in drenched strands and his soaked shirt making his clan seal stick to him was rather amusing though, she had to admit to herself. Still it did not bode well with the others. Duo had to ride into town with Quatre and Trowa to keep him away from the murderous Wufei, and Isabella had been confined to either her bedroom or the hanger until all was clear. Heero, needless to say, was not happy that he was stuck on babysitting duty.

"Are our suits ready to be transported and used?" Wing Zero's pilot asked.

"They should be," she replied and stood. Leaning against the railing, she tapped the toe of her show against the metal platform."We're going to the Lunar base?"

"I don't know what you mean by we," Yuy said monotonously, "because you are not. Us pilots are going. Relena got Sally Po to gather rebels to attack. We'll go to meet them for support—though they won't know it until we get there."

"I have every intention of going. Edan will be there, no doubt. I have to save her."

"From what I saw," Heero said, turning his back to her, "there wasn't much left to save."

000

When everyone had safely returned, and Wufei had calmed down just enough to be in the hanger with Duo and Isabella, even if on total opposite sides, Quatre stood in the center of the area to talk to the crowd. The Maganac Corps were littered around the hangar, the Gundam pilots amongst them.

"Everyone," the blonde called out, his voice echoing in the huge chamber, bouncing off of every piece of metal, "everyone, rebel forces are gathering to attack CSO's Lunar base, mostly in attempt to release many POWs held there. We've given them our Aries suit software to protect them against CSO's shut down program, thanks to the Miss Isabella—" the young woman, some forty feet above on a platform waved, beaming brightly, "—so this is the best chance we have. We will defeat enemy forces, rescue more POWs than anyone else has done in the past three years, and prove to Prime Minster Adelphie that we won't sit idly by while he restricts the freedoms that we, as human beings, are born with. Will you join me?"

The red-capped men threw their fists into the air cheering, showing their support for their commander. Isabella was slightly taken aback by the sudden surge of noise, and even jumped a little. "The Maganac Corps are all fiercely loyal to Quatre," Duo leaned over and whispered in her ear when the shouting died down. "They've followed him as their commander for over five years now. We can always rely on them for help. Did CSO know that?"

Isabella shook her head, a few loose strands of blonde falling out of her sloppy bun. "We've known them to help but we had no account of official alliance. It seemed more like a convenience sort of thing, you know?" She whispered back as Quatre continued speaking. He wrapped everything up and they quickly dispersed, immediately in soldier mode. The Maganac planned to be ready within the next two hours. "So how do we get to space? There's no launch pad here, unless you're hiding it under a whole lot of sand…"

"Naw," Duo chuckled and turned around, backing against the metal railing casually. He gazed up at the stationary Deathscythe, who towered over them begging for someone to pilot her. "We'll ship out in a few hours to fly to a launch pad about a two, two and a half hour(s) flight away, get everything switched over and then take off into space. In six hours, we should be leaving the atmosphere. Maybe you'll grace me with your company until we reach the resource satellite that we're supposed to hide out at?"

"Wow, you aren't bashful at all, are you?"

"Nope, not one bit," the braided young man grinned widely, placing his hands behind his head and lacing his fingers together, "plus, while I was captive, I never saw any women. You should be glad that I'm not just all over you," he laughed, finding nothing wrong with his statement. "So how about it?"

Isabella rolled her eyes. She didn't like amorous attention simply because she was the only female around. "Yes, well, we'll see," she responded dryly, scooping up her canvas bag with her laptop within it. She turned on her heel and stared to walk away, her grey and white tennis shoes making it easy to slide around on the metal. Duo blinked, confusion in his violet eyes.

"Wait," he called out, his arms dropping to his sides, "what did I do?!"

They loaded up their suits, planning their transport through numerous underground channels and obscured flight paths until they reached their launch pad. Thankfully, Isabella was not left alone with Duo, but with pilots 01, 02, 03, and 05. Quatre rode with the Corps. Isabella mostly sat with her iPod in, slouching down in her seat, one foot up on the seat in front of her. Wufei did not appreciate her constant tapping. When he tried to stop her, she pretended she couldn't hear him. She had been in a relatively bad mood since they had started their pack up almost four hours prior.

"This is why we don't have women as Gundam pilots," Chang snapped after he finally turned around and grabbed her ankle, sliding it off of his seat. She scowled at him. Trowa and Heero both nodded in agreement very quickly. "Just get me out of here…" The Chinese male sat with one arm across his chest and the other resting on it. He squeezed his eyes shut and put this thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose. Luckily, they did not have much further to go until Heero landed their aircraft.

They double checked their seatbelts before Yuy started their descent in the mobile suit carrier. It was a rather rough ride. Duo laughed when he saw the only female with them digging her nails into the seat's arm rest. "What's wrong? Scared?"

"No," she snapped, "I'm just used to smoother rides."

"Sorry our mode of transportation isn't up to par with your fine needs," Duo said, well, shouted. It was difficult to hear over the sound of the plane, and it had only become worse while they closed in on the runway below. Isabella did not respond and she put her head back, staring at the ceiling to try to keep from getting a headache. Pilot 02 just smirked and gazed out through the front main window. He was just thrilled to be out and about, doing something to help the rebel efforts. He wanted to take CSO down more than (replace probably most with the others) probably most did.

It took only about five minutes to land, and another ten to get off of the mobile suit carrier. Isabella practically jumped off, finding the nearest place to steady herself—a Jeep waiting to take them across to the space craft. The Maganac would get their Gundams transferred under Quatre and Trowa's watchful eyes. "We have to prepare for rendezvous in nineteen hours," Heero said as he jumped out from his side. "Duo and Quatre, Trowa and Wufei, Isabella, you're with me. Can you prepare a ship for launch?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Head over with Wufei and Duo, get our ships ready," Heero said, giving her a look that clearly showed he should not be argued with. Her head fell, and she dragged her feet as she walked to the Jeep. She hopped into the passenger seat.

"I'm driving!" Duo called out, immediately diving into the driver's seat, turning the key, which was already in the ignition, and revving the engine, all in one fluid motion. The Chinese male balled his hands into fists, looking at Heero with a very dark expression. Heero shrugged and turned away to walk with Trowa. Wufei was just so ready to murder the braided fool and the blonde bitch. He didn't even want to ride in the vehicle with them. Still, he had no choice but to hop onto the back—though he had to quickly steady himself because the moment he was up on the back seat, Duo lurched forward, speeding off towards the other side of the desert air/space port.

The hot air whipped around them as they drove down the cement and asphalt pad that was slightly covered with a thin layer of sand. Many of the Maganac Corps members cleared their way when they saw Duo in the driver's seat. Those who didn't move wished they had when the braided pilot weaved around both people and other vehicles, cutting some very close. Isabella was sitting down lowly, once again holding onto the seat for dear life, and Wufei was gripping the roll-top bar tightly. Duo drifted around a bend, causing Isabella to suck in sharply and squeeze her eyes shut.

Shortly after, they slowed to a stop. Thankfully, they had arrived safely. Somehow.

"You drive like an American," the blonde muttered, escaping the car as quickly as she had escaped the mobile suit carrier a short time before.

"Hey, I'm a good driver," he said defensively, opening the door and stepping down to the ground. "Sunno what you're talking about…"

"Both of you,"Wufei shouted, stomping off to the third ship set up for his suit and Heavyarms, "get to your ships and start set up. We don't have time for your ridiculous squabbling." He refused to stand around waiting for whatever sarcastic remarks may have been coming to him. Isabella grabbed her laptop bag and went to the first ship being prepared for Wing Zero's transport. She wasn't supposed to be heading into battle, so she had no suit to use.

Sometime later, after the Gundams were all loaded up and secured to be launched into space, Heero, Quatre, and Trowa went to the three ships, respectively. "Have you ever been in one of these?" Heero asked as he walked in from the doors behind Isabella. He sat down in the main pilot's seat and glanced around to make sure all set up procedures had been done correctly. It was more or less done by the book.

"Only once," she replied, "I usually rode in my father's passenger ship until I reached my destination. When I did go up, it was a practice run, just to make sure I would be fine on my own if it did come down to it."

"And things went well?"

"I only nearly blew the ship up once."

000

"How are you holding up?" Trowa was now sitting next to Wufei, waiting for the command for launch. When he had come in, all preparations had been done, and Wufei was sitting back with his eyes closed, most likely in meditation. Surely he needed it.

"I look forward to facing CSO's soldiers," the Chinese male responded. "I need to relieve some stress and aggravation." They left the conversation at that. The two were not the type to have conversation. An iron tower some distance away had three large panels on it each with a different color—red, yellow, and green. Currently it was yellow. They were waiting for the red panel to flip and signal a magnetic storm. Their automatic launch systems wouldn't work until they were out of the storm, but it would cover their take off long enough to shake CSO's watchful eye.

The six pilots (Isabella was technically a pilot even if she used a different skill to do so) waited in silence, preparing to launch at the very moment their chance presented itself. The space port put up its red warning and they all did their part. "Launch one," Heero said into the com link, though the others could barely hear him over the interfering static. His blonde copilot watched nervously as their boosters kicked on, and they took off down the long runway, lifting off like an airplane but rising much quicker. Exactly three minutes later, Quatre and Duo followed. Three minutes after them, Wufei and Trowa were bringing up the rear.

Their space-carriers were larger than the regular mobile suit carriers that the Maganac would use when the storm passed. They were not as confident as their Gundam companions were in their piloting skills and intuition, so the corps would launch as CSO repair transports to keep CSO from catching on.

Isabella, as she watched Heero expertly piloting their space craft, suddenly had a bit more respect for him and the others. She was fully aware that she would not have been able to do what they did.

And then she came to a terrible realization.

After they released the POWs from the Lunar Base, and after they know that their suits were now fully capable of use without CSO's claws catching them, they would ditch her. If they didn't kill, they would destroy her laptop and her work. But they would probably kill her so that her father couldn't use her.

What she needed was protection…

They successfully reached their desired resource satellite, a relatively small, abandoned one that had been bought by Quatre's family over a decade before. Now, it lazily hovered in the earth's orbit, a short distance away from the moon, or more specifically, CSO's Lunar Base.

"Where's Isabella?" Trowa suddenly spoke up, causing everyone around him to stop and look about. The pilots quickly realized that no one had seen her since they started unloading their ships and sent them to a nearby port to save room within the satellite. The young men immediately dropped the things they were holding—parts, tool boxes, inventory counts, swords (actually, Wufei did not put that down, but carried it with him,) and took off in different directions.

Calling her name, they tried to look everywhere, even pulling some Maganac soldiers into the mix to look for her. Finally, Chang was the one to find her.

"There you are you little…" He trailed off, angrily marching over to her. She was sitting behind a mobile suit, leaning against the metal with her laptop on her crossed legs. "You were told to stay within sight," Wufei snapped, leaning forward and grabbing her shoulder roughly, "we've lost valuable time now because of you."

"Sorry," Isabella responded quickly, turning away completely from the young man. She reached for her bag and very quickly brought the back of her hands to her eyes. Chang very quickly realized that Isabella had been crying, and he stepped back awkwardly.

Great, he thought to himself, why did I have to be the one to find her? He turned slightly, scanning the area for Heero, or Duo, or, well, anyone else who could deal with the woman because he did not want to. Quatre caught sight of Wufei and quickly came to his aid.

"Oh, Miss Isabella," Winner said comfortingly, "Don't take Wufei's threats seriously, he wouldn't hurt you while you're with us. He's just not very good with people, especially girls." He sat down next to the young woman, who laughed a little bit, causing him to smile.

"What!" Wufei shouted, looking rather angry again, "I did nothing! She was already weeping when I came over!"

"It's not him. He doesn't scare me," Isabella quickly said, only causing Altron's pilot to become even more aggravated. She turned her computer to show both men what was on the screen. A small window showed the streaming security video of one of CSO's medical rooms.

"How did you—"

"They removed the security from this line," she replied before they could finish, she said clenching her jaw and frowning deeply. "they wanted me to see this."

"What are we looking at?" Duo waltzed up with Heero, forming a group as they took either side of Wufei. The braided fool had been smiling brightly until his eyes landed on the screen. "I know that room."

"No, you don't," Isabella said and shook her head. "It's on the Lunar Base. It just looks like one of the medical rooms you had been in. It's used primarily for neurosurgery." Duo froze up for a moment and then turned away without another word. He didn't want those memories of his to resurface.

"That's Edan," Heero said after a moment.

"They've reactivated her. I've been trying to break into her connection and change her orders but she won't listen to me. She always has before. I don't understand… unless I can physically connect to her like I did with Duo, her orders will stand and…" Her voice trailed off, though they knew what she was hinting at.

"And?" Wufei aked.

"And I know you will try to kill her. She doesn't deserve that, the same way Duo didn't deserve to be killed when he turned on you! She has to follow orders. She is not capable of stopping herself. Please, I'm begging you, if you could just get her to me and get her unconscious, I could reverse it and she could be a great ally!" The blonde woman turned to the guys, absolutely pleading with them.

"No," stated Heero, "she's too dangerous. We'll kill her with the first chance we get." He did not stand around to argue. Heero walked away to continue preparations.

"I'm sorry, Miss Isabella, but he's right," Quatre said sadly, his expression showing that he was also very upset,"if you can't control her now, there's just too much of a risk. Come on, let's get you settled in, and—"

"Just leave me alone," she snapped, quickly gathering her stuff. "You're all being unreasonable. You have the capability of saving someone who needs to be saved. I thought you were supposed to be the good guys!" She looked up at Wufei, who was thus far silent, "she needs help. How can you justify killing someone who has had their life, their will, their… everything taken from them to be forced to become an empty shell. You as soldiers should understand how wrong that is…" Holding her laptop to her tightly, she walked with her head down, looking for a new place to be alone.

"Mercy," Quatre muttered, "killing that young woman, Edan, may be mercy on our part. There can't be anything left to save within her." He also went to return to work, leaving just the solitary dragon.

Wufei now had quite the dilemma on his hands. He, the warrior who always prided himself on fighting for justice, was not entirely sure what he should do. The others thought that they should kill Edan at their first opportunity, which was logical. However, he found he somewhat agreed with the blonde woman. It was not justice to punish someone who could not stop herself from doing the things she may consider wrong. If he were to avoid killing her at the expense of others though, that would also be the wrong thing to do.

Oh, and of course there was the fact that he did not agree entirely with the statement there is nothing left inside of her. He could recall, no matter how brief it had been, the slight flicker that had crossed her features during their match. She had become genuinely aggravated. As much as he wanted a chance to face her again, Wufei rather hoped a final decision as to whether she lived or died did not fall upon his shoulders.

000

Author's Notes: and as I promised, I will stop spamming you with updates! Sometimes I cringe as I read some of this early stuff. If I had the motivation, I would go back and rewrite some of it. However, if I did that, I would never get the story out. Next chapter: some action! The gundams will be up and running, wooh!

Ideally, I would get a chapter out at the end of next week, but I have a business trip, and I'm not sure if I will be motivated enough to do some editing and post another chapter after my drive back. I can tell that people are clicking on the story and reading it so… that's a good thing, right? Let me know what you think—it may motivate me to get that chapter out after all!

Today I wrote the ending of this story. I still have chunks I have to go back and redo/add in, but the entire 'shell' is done. It was actually somewhat emotional for me to write, despite the ending being planned out for six years! Hopefully some of you will stick around until the end and share in my emotion.

Always your servant,

A.F