After Colony: Revelation

Part II: Verse II

000

It wasn't until mid-morning that the pilots were able to reconvene. Howard spent the night making sure all of the systems were fully repaired, and opted not to join them. He told them they could catch him up on anything noteworthy, since he had nothing on CSO that could provide benefit. Noin did decide to sit in. Though no one had pushed her to leave Zech's side, she asked Relena to watch over him. It was mostly to keep Relena from trying to sit in on the strategy meeting.

Edan was not present. Until they could all agree on what to do with her, she remained locked in a cabin. If it upset her that they chose to keep her secluded, she did not show it nor fight it.

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky. All traces of the storm had been completely blown away. Unfortunately, the beautiful weather did nothing to settle their moods as they sat in the meeting room on the topmost deck, surrounded by windows.

They all appeared exhausted except for Heero, who had no problem ignoring the chaos and storm, and passed right out after his dreadful conversation with Relena. Pilots 02, 03, and 04 were all on their third or fourth cup of coffee for the morning, and the dark circles around their eyes proved that they needed it. They had been sure there would be an attack from Moira's CSO troops that night, but nothing came.

Wufei had been up for most of the night with medics and barely caught a wink of sleep. He was sipping on soda water to ease his burning throat since regular water was completely out of the question.

"That chopper was fully equipped with military grade rounds. They could have tried to sink us, but they didn't," Heero said, arms across his chest, "I believe we are safe as long as we have the governors on board."

"I'm inclined to believe you. If Moira's coup was staged to be just when the public turned on Adelphie, then she isn't going to do something to risk tarnishing her image as a reform leader," Quatre replied. He stirred around his spoon in his coffee mug, watching as the sugar dissolved. He couldn't stand the taste of black coffee.

Duo, on the other hand, chose to only drink it black. During the chaos outside the previous night, he was inside, helping with injured. Once the power was cut, and everything went dark, more than one person found themselves disoriented and panicked. One of the guests had what seemed like the start of a mental break down, and started lashing out at the women acting as nurses.

He had been searching for Edan and Isabella when he heard the hysteria, and jumped in to restrain the man. Duo couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. He had misjudged the force needed to keep the panicked man down, and accidentally dislocated the man's shoulder. Once the lights kicked back on, one of the women immediately used a syringe to knock him out and keep him at bay until everything calmed down.

Apparently, the gundam pilot managed to come at a good time, since the man was preparing to repeatedly bash a woman's head in the ground. Duo sat and consoled her for longer than her cared too—at least while the ship was in such a state of chaos. When he finally managed to pull himself out of her thankful and frightened grip, the excitement outside had already come to a conclusion.

"You know," he said and stretched, "we're usually a pretty good judge of character. I don't think we've ever had another moment where someone has intentionally infiltrated with the intention of betraying us."

Wufei scowled and looked severely offended. "I told you we couldn't trust her. I never stopped telling you we couldn't trust her."

"You sure didn't try to do anything to convince us after Edan joined us though," Trowa said quietly, turning his attention to the froth fizzling away in his coffee.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Wufei replied, with an edge in his voice. The other pilot didn't respond, he only shrugged and started to loudly sip his drink.

"Boys," Noin said loudly, cutting the building tension in the room. "You can mock each other later. For now, can we get to the point? So, Isabella turned on us. What we need to figure out is: was this her plan from the beginning, or did something happened that caused her to flee?"

Wufei leaned back with a silent, 'hmph,' and opted not to respond. Trowa was quiet as well, deciding to continue to stare at his coffee mug.

"We have to assume this was her plan from the start," Heero finally said, unfazed by the others, "we feel that the timing of Moira's take over was simply too convenient to have not been meticulously planned. If she is in league with her sister, then Isabella made it a point to join us for a reason. We just don't know what… yet."

Quatre cleared his throat and set down his porcelain mug. "Actually, I have some information that could help. I checked on Sandrock this morning. Edan informed me that she found Isabella inside the cockpit, but she did not know why. After doing a thorough check, I discovered that the driver containing the Zero system is missing. As I think you all know, my suit was the only other one to have the Zero system loaded into it, at Heero's request."

"I had never let Isabella do manual maintenance on Wing Zero without my supervision. She would not have known where to find the Zero system, since Wing is designed a bit differently from the others. If her aim was to take it, she was probably looking for an opportunity to get in without anyone noticing," Heero explained before nodding to Quatre to continue.

"I, on the other hand, did allow Isabella into Sandrock. I'm sure you're all absolutely shocked that I was trusting enough to do so," Quatre said with a sad smile. He always wanted to see the best in people, and that often came back to bite him. "If I were to take a stab at it, I would say that she noticed that Sandrock had the Zero system when she added in the voice feature for the Red Horse connection. Of course, she couldn't take it then without us noticing. She would have had to wait until she had an escape route. She must have been in contact with CSO frequently to set this up. It would explain how they knew about our POW rescue and the Isle of Man attempt."

"Sounds logical enough," Duo said and reclined in his swivel chair with his hands behind his head, "what about Edan? Was she in on it?"

"There is very little doubt in my mind that she's involved," Noin replied quickly, raising her hand in defense of coming objections, "I know, I know, she took a bullet subduing the CSO spy that shot Zechs, but if she's Isabella's… flunky… I just can't believe that she wasn't at least partially aware of an underlying plot."

The others were silent for a moment before Trowa spoke again. "I honestly believe that she does not want to be part of CSO and Isabella's plans. I can't say for sure how much she knew, but someone who would dive three stories into deadly waters to save another person isn't someone who would willingly turn against us."

Noin started to object, but then shook her head. "You're right, I'm sorry, I just… if it weren't for Isabella, Sally might be alive and Zechs might not be laying in critical condition. I want someone to be angry at."

"We understand that," Quatre replied, "we've all been there. But be mad at Isabella, and Moira, and CSO. Be mad at just them." He flashed her a smile, and Noin couldn't help but nod.

"What have you dug up on Moira?" Trowa asked, trying his best to move the conversation forward before any tension could return to the room. They didn't have much time to strategize, especially with the first wave of governors being unloaded later that day.

"Moira Adelphie," Heero said and grabbed a small remote sitting towards the center of the round table. Trowa went ahead and drew the blinds to darken the room while the projector warmed up. "We already know the basics—Adelphie's first born daughter, head of Research and Development for CSO. Until recently, there was been no indication that she was involved with the Horsemen projects, besides the fact she is apparently in a relationship with DeBordaris. Despite the neurochips being developed in her department, it seems she may have made every effort to keep her name from appearing on any of the research."

"How do we know all of this? Hasn't CSO upped their security since Isabella rejoined them?" Noin asked, intently watching as lists of names flashed before her eyes.

"They have," Trowa replied and returned to his seat. "However, because we had our own suspicions, Edan was able to use access codes for a short period of time to allow us to make copies of some databases. Unfortunately, she was shut out before we could get anything substantial to prove Moira's involvement. The codes she was using were some of Isabella's—who probably didn't realize Edan had learned to use them."

"Why are some of these names in red?" Wufei finally decided to join the conversations.

Heero selected the red names and dragged them onto a document for easier comparison. "These are all names who have contributed key pieces to the later neurochip designs. They start appearing in lat A.C. 193 and continue on even now."

"Minerva Hartle, phD, Janus L. Evanch, phD, Mikaela Eros, Carolyn Cronin, Hestia M. Flavian, phD, Virgil Marcasee… These names all have something to do with Greek or Roman mythology," Quatre said thoughtfully, tapping his cheek. "It could be a coincidence but somehow, I doubt it."

"Edan told us that Moira has been publishing and patenting under pseudonyms for years. She worked just hard enough to earn herself a comfortable position in her father's company, but not enough for him to consider putting an implant into her skull. While a neurochip could have further advanced her existing brilliance, she did not want to give Adelphie the opportunity to control her. All of these names in red—they don't exist. There is no record of these people ever existing." Heero continued to relay the information that he knew, thankful for the time he and Trowa had with the silent woman before returning to the Swift Trillion.

"We don't have enough information to fully determine her intent. It is quite possible that Moira has been behind a large portion of the Horsemen projects. If we are to assume that she is behind each of these identities, then we can conclude that the final control chips were her doing. Edan received hers in mid A.C. 195, two years after Moira started with CSO," Heero explained and clicked forward in the slide show. A detailed blue print of a neurochip covered the screen.

The instructions were incomplete and coded. Heero suspected that there were numerous versions of the blueprints to keep others from copying the patented product. One thing that they did know was that the majority of the metal plates were Gundamium, making them incredibly durable.

"Stop," Duo said suddenly as the clicking continued, "go back two slides, yeah, there. It looks like the designs started changing at this version. Look at the year, 196, this is the version that came after Edan's surgery. The box on the bottom calls it Gen Two."

Wufei perked up and looked at the diagram further. "Zechs was shot by a CSO spy who called Edan a 'Gen One.' She said something indication that there were problems with the 'Gen Ones.' Perhaps the patients at the Isle of Man were all 'Gen One,' and the sleeper cells we've been told about are 'Gen Two,' or something to that effect. Possibly even later versions if Moira is perfecting the neurochip system."

"At this point, it's safe to say that Moira Adelphie has been the brains behind CSO for almost a decade," Heero said and crossed his arms.

"Dorian was likely an unwitting figurehead. He was so bent on power that he didn't even notice that he and his resources were being used by his own daughter," Quatre replied with a shrug, staring down at his near-empty mug. "To be honest, there's a part of me that thinks he probably would've been proud that his flesh and blood was smart enough to do all that. Another part of me though thinks he definitely would've turned her into one of his projects."

The group seemed to agree on that matter as they all nodded.

"Well, now, I think the next order of business is Edan. Do we keep her locked up? My vote is 'no.'" Trowa leaned back, looking around the table. Quatre met his eyes and nodded. Duo and Noin diverted their gazes when his fell upon them. Wufei stared straight ahead, as if he were looking at something else all together.

"Listen," Duo started slowly, putting a hand in his hair and ruffling it slightly, "I know—we all know—how you and Quatre feel on the matter. I just… I don't see how you can be so trusting after what Isabella did. Edan was first and foremost her lackey. Just because Isabella's gone doesn't mean Edan isn't still doing her job. Willingly or not, of course."

Noin shrugged and nodded. "I agree. I see your point with her rescue last night, but until I can get Zechs moved, at the very least, I would feel more comfortable if she wasn't free to roam."

"Okay. What about you, Wufei, what do you think the matter? Should we keep your savior locked up like a beast?" Trowa asked, his voice completely even, without batting an eye.

Wufei turned to him, a look of annoyance and displeasure washing over him. "I have no opinion on the matter. Do whatever you want."

There's a chance Trowa would have chuckled, if he hadn't been above that, when he watched his fellow pilot jump up and head for the door. Wufei—also so predictable. When he had even the slightest inkling of being harassed, he always left the room. He couldn't seem to take a joke.

"I guess we're split then. Heero, it's up to you."

A few hours after their meeting came to an end, Edan was roaming about the Swift Trillion.

000

Two days later, Swift Trillion was unloading the remainder of the governors. They thought it best to separate their precious cargo so that if CSO decided to attack, the governors were spread out and had a better chance to escape. So far, their enemy had been silent—well, besides the continuous broadcasts from Moira Adelphie, who felt the need to prove she was making amends.

Trowa crossed the deck and tapped Edan with an icy bottle of water. She took it, but did not spare him a glance. "I was half expecting you to sneak off with everyone else," he said and cracked open his own bottle. "This is your last chance you know, you could disappear. Go become someone else. No one would blame you."

The woman stared at the droplets of condensation dripping down the bottle and into her hand. From their vantage point, they had a perfect view of the trucks that were picking up the governors, as well as Zechs, Noin, and Une. Trowa suspected that the thought of leaving had probably crossed Edan's mind.

"Is Wufei still avoiding you?"

Edan shrugged and turned around to lean against the railing. The trucks below were slowly pulling away, one by one.

"He doesn't like feeling weak. But then, you know that by now," Trowa said. They stood quietly together, enjoying the comfortable breeze passing over the deck. The sun was setting and they would be launching back into another night of travel until they hit their own drop off point. Quatre had thought it best to get the gundams unloaded during the cover of night. "If I were you, I think I would give him a black eye."

He couldn't be sure, but Trowa thought he saw the corners of Edan's mouth twitch upwards just slightly.

Edan stood up straight again and waved her water bottle at him. The pilots had started to learn to translate her body language, and Trowa was usually the best at determining what she was saying.

"Thank you for this."

"You're welcome," he replied, just so she knew he understood.

Heero didn't fully trust her, but he still accepted Edan's aid against CSO. Duo made every effort to not be left alone with her, while Quatre, on the other hand, wanted to essentially hold one of one counseling sessions. Wufei… well, no one was quite sure about his stance. The more they poked fun at him, the more he avoided the woman.

Trowa liked her certainly better than he liked Isabella. While he had known she had her own personality, behind the forced act of a perfect soldier, he was anticipating seeing even more, now that she didn't have to constantly trail Isabella.

With the help of the Swift Trillion crew, the five core gundams and red Horse were unloaded in just a few short hours. Howard agreed to hold onto the Tallgeese and Sparta until Zechs and Noin needed them. There was no point unloading them and leaving them somewhere for someone else to find. He also had to hold onto White Horse. No one else could pilot the suit anyhow, without Isabella's connection, and they weren't sure if CSO could do a remote detonation. Instead of risking rebel lives, Howard said he would place it in a safe house.

"The plan is to meet up with Lieutenant Carlino. He has been in contact with some of the largest rebel fighting groups, and he can help us assess our standings amongst the public. It will be hard to make a worthwhile stand against CSO if we do not have enough global support. We need to get everyone acting at once to keep CSO from getting the upper hand with their advanced technology. At the very least, sheer numbers should help overwhelm them," Heero said and climbed aboard the waiting convoy.

Quatre and Trowa joined him, sitting in the back seat. None of them were particularly knowledgeable about the Portugese coastline, which meant that they had to rely on the divers provided to them by the loyal rebel leader. Though they had little reason to believe that they should be concerned; all of the pilots, even Edan, were armed.

There was another vehicle waiting. Duo practically dove into the front seat and started a conversation with the driver: a ranking member of the rebel forces, based upon the two white feather patches sewn into his sleeve. Edan and Wufei climbed in after, remaining quiet.

The drive through the forest was smooth in the fact that there no problems along the way. Physically, it was anything but smooth. The roads, if they could be called roads, were uneven and overgrown. They frequently jerked to one side to avoid large holes. At one point, Duo was sure that his convoy had gone up on two wheels.

Even Heero was gripping the handle on his side of extra security.

When they pulled up, the make shift base was crawling with activity. The fact that no one immediately pulled weapons on them put the pilots at a bit of ease.

"Carlino is waiting," said Heero's driver, "he wants to speak with you straight away. We have bunks made up for all of you. I trust the woman won't have a problem sharing if she's traveling with you?"

Wing Zero's pilot glanced back at the other convoy. "No, no problems. We're all soldiers."

The driver nodded. "I'm Decker, it's an honor to work with you, sir." He stepped aside and held his arm out to direct Heero to the busiest of the tents.

A path was cleared for him as he pushed the canvas flap to the side and entered. The commanding officer was against the others side, his back turned towards Heero. His uniform was the closest to true military dressing—in fact, the gundam pilot was relatively sure it had been an OZ uniform at one point.

"I'm assuming we're the ones represented by the angels?" Heero said, interrupting the hushed conversation taking place.

There was a table set up in the center of the room with a detailed map of Europe spread across it. Small, dark pieces were covering known CSO areas. Mini figurines in the shape of winged creatures littered rebel camp sites. There were ten pieces that were larger than the rest. White, grey, red, yellow, and green angels represented the core gundams. Two were painted with blue and red, which Heero decided represented Noin and Zechs suits. There were three others that were painted black, each with a splash of either red, white, or green—the CSO built suits.

"They're calling us the Seraphs," Carlino stated and stepped forward, "I suppose it's only appropriate, since we're up against the Four Horsemen. Lieutenant Joseph Carlino, good to meet you."

The rebel leader extended his hand, which the pilot took. "Heero Yuy. One of the Horsemen is fighting for us."

Carlino gave a slight smile, almost as if he were just humoring Heero. He picked up the black and red angel, flipping it over in his hand. "Until recently, you would have said two of them were on our side."

Of course, technically, two still were—Duo was slated to be one of the Horsemen as well, though those plans were interrupted. Heero decided it was best not to bring up that information, since it was not widely known intel. "The pilot codenamed War is still with us and fighting against CSO. That is all you need to know."

The two men stared at one another, the air around them becoming oppressively thick. Heero was not surprised. It was not uncommon for ranking war veterans to doubt his authority. His size, stature, and his general appearance made it hard to be taken seriously. However, Carlino was the first one to break away, submitting to the gundam pilot.

"Understood," said the rebel leader, roughly placing the angel figure back on the table, setting it with the group representing the core gundams.

"What's the word with our other major supporters?" Heero asked, clearing the air. "How many have backed down with Dorian Adelphie's death?"

Carlino looked down at the large map and reached out, removing groups of mini angel figurines from the board. Almost one third were removed entirely—in fact, their Portugese base was the only one remaining in the southwest section. "Most of our European and American rebel bases have broken up. They were the first ones to decide to give Moira a chance to make things right. Their nations, however, were also the ones to retain most of their power. I'm not surprised they aren't concerned, since Moira is allowing them to self govern again, and even hold armaments. But then, what's the threat if she can shut them down whenever she wants."

"Where do we have the most support, then?"

"Most of our South America divisions have remained intact—some have even grown. We all know about the massacres that happened during CSO's take over. They were extremely offended by the way Moira only seemed interested in the Isle of Man incident. Our East Asia divisions are mostly in full force as well. They have all had a large number of people taken as POWs, who have never been seen again. After the footage was released of the human experimentation, those divisions now believe they know what happened to their comrades."

Heero crossed his arms and evaluated the map in front of him. "Some of the East Asia factions are our largest supporters. They have the most usable mobile suits and pilots out of everyone, besides the Arab nations with the Maganac. We still have a chance if we want to remove the CSO threat."

"I agree," replied Carlino, "but we will have to act simultaneously. If we give CSO a chance to target civilians, I have no doubt that they will use them as hostages to keep our rebel forces at bay. We can only hope that if the disbanded factions see us fighting, they will join us and ensure the tides are in our favor."

"Then that's what we will have to do. If you think that this camp is secure enough, we will wait until we can get in touch with the other commanders and line up a strategy." Heero reached out and took the black and white angel. White Horse may have been with the rebels, but Plague was back in CSO hands. He placed the figurine down next to Pale Horse's last known location before turning and exiting the tent.

000

Most of the camp retired for the night around one in the morning, though rounds were routinely run to keep everything secured. Wufei was lying in his bunk, just a few yards away from Duo, who was contently snoring away. No matter what he did, Wufei could not make the other pilot keep quiet.

"I'm going to smother him..." Deciding it would cause a scene if he were caught holding a pillow over the braided fool's face, Wufei opted to throw the scratchy green blanket to the side and leave the tent.

Trowa and Quatre were unfazed by the snoring as they lay in comfortable slumber. They were both on their sides, facing the canvas tenting, with Trowa on the top bunk. Heero had not yet turned in for the night, and Wufei wouldn't have been surprised if he stayed up all night plotting with the Lieutenant.

Edan's bed above his went untouched as well, Wufei noticed. It only took him a few minutes to find her sitting on a lopsided bench, staring at the dying fire ahead of her. Pulling together all of his resolve, the pilot slowly approached her from the side before taking a seat next to her. The bench was so uneven that it sunk under his weight and lifted her about an inch higher.

"I would ask if Maxwell's snoring bothered you, but you haven't even stepped for in there all night," he said and leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Those were the first words he had said to the woman since before she had dove into the frigid North Sea to save his life. Edan showed no signs of hearing him. She barely even blinked as she continued to gaze off at the flames.

"It is very hard for me to say thank you," Wufei said with an aggravated sigh, "I am frustrated because I shouldn't have let myself fall into that position in the first place. I should have thrown him overboard…"

As he clenched his jaw and shook his head, Edan reached down to pick up a stuck at her side. She used her shoe to flatten the dirt in front of her before tracing letters into the soot.

Not your style.

Wufei stared at the words with furrowed brows. "What, throwing someone overboard?" She nodded in response, and he cracked a small smirk before quietly saying, "yeah… not my style."

He placed his hands on the edge of the bench just behind him, and leaned back, looking up at the almost-full-moon. It was a nice night, and he was happy to be back on solid ground, even if it meant having to share a tent with Duo. It was hard to believe that just about three weeks ago, they were arriving on the Swift Trillion after their Isle of Man failure.

"There's a clearing through that patch of trees," Wufei said suddenly, nodding towards a bit of forest in front of them, "we could spar until we're too tired to care about Maxwell's noise."

Edan immediately sat straight and perked up, almost like a cat with a toy dangled in front of her. Wufei took that as her answer and stood, leading the way until they had completely disappeared from the camp site.

It was almost four o'clock when the pair stumbled into the pilots' tent, searching in the dark for one of their ration kits. Edan found hers first and practically tore the water bottle cap off to gulp down half of it before tossing it at Wufei. He caught it and finished it.

"Some of us are trying to sleep," Trowa said in response to their panting and the crinkling of the plastic bottle. He didn't sound angry, and if Wufei hadn't known better, he would have said the other pilot was amused.

Wufei's amends were made with the woman, and he swore to ignore any insinuations made by the other pilots. He would never admit how much he appreciated Edan's company, but he would do what little he could to at least keep her around even if it meant enduring a bit of harassment.

000

Author's Notes: I know, this one was somewhat boring. But sometimes, transitions are just necessary. Zechs and Noin are officially out of the picture—though they will make appearances in the story, they will not be back in front of the pilots. They will be acting in a different, but necessary capacity—as is needed in a rebellion. Une is with them, Dorothy and Relena are with some of the governors running PR interference for the pilots.

Anonymous Pat: I'm debating on how closely I want to make things line up with Frozen Teardrop. Some of that is already out of the window of possibility, but some of what I've written can still be changed to fit it.

ShinyWurmple: so sorry, I forgot to include your response! You reviewed after I had already uploaded the file to FF and I didn't answer before posting! I just marathoned the entire series again last weekend, and ultimately, I am happy with how much I was able to incorporate from the original series, even if it isn't always noticeable! (Also, as for the Asylum, there was some cool stuff, but, I was annoyed that two extra people were added to our 'group' which meant there were 12 of us on a floor. It's hard to get excited about thumps and bumps when you know there's another couple who could be just down the hallway.)

Ahem, anyhow...

Thank you everyone for reading! If you have any questions/comments/concerns/suggestions, I highly recommend you message me or review =) I try to respond to everything!

Ever your servant,

A.F