After Colony: Revelation

Part II: Verse V

000

"What've you got?" Heero asked, adjusting the monitor to get a better look at the couple he was speaking with. Zechs and Noin looked back at him, though they occasionally looked down at some folders in front of them.

"Okay, so, it looks like Duo and Trowa were right. The CSO soldiers that jumped them at the lab were originally stationed at an embassy in Paris. Our contacts say that half of the entire team was sent from the embassy to the lab. If we piece this together, it would seem that they were the closest Gen Twos to Seville, so Moira sent them to retrieve Quatre and attempt to take out any rebels who came looking for him." Noin was the one to speak, and Zechs just looked passively down at his papers. "Our guess is that she set the warfare device where Quatre had been with an attempt to blame the rebels for their attack."

"I see… How are you recovering, Zechs?" Heero asked, finding the man's lack of participation unlike him. When it came to military conferences, he usually had no problem inserting his professional advice.

"I'm recovering fine. It takes more than a stray bullet to keep me down," Zechs replied.

"Yeah. Some are saying he'd need a stake through the heart to finish him off," Noin said with a laugh. She gave her partner a light punch in the shoulder. "Don't mind him, Heero. He's just being a five year old and giving me the cold shoulder. Apparently, now that we're married, he thinks he gets to tell me what to do."

"Noin," Zechs growled in irritation, though his expression certainly did remind Heero somewhat of a pouting child.

"Married?" Heero asked, knowing full well that Noin only brought it up because she desperately wanted him to ask. He typically would have ignored just an obvious ploy, but he couldn't bring himself to do that to the poor woman.

"Yup! Did you know that Dorothy is ordained? I mean, I guess if anyone we know would decide to do something so off the wall, it would be her… Well, or Duo, but I don't think he's ever shown any interest in actually doing more than dressing like a priest."

"Congratulations."

"I will forgive your lack of excitement. I know even asking about it is effort from you… Anyhow, it looks like there is a CSO medical center about a half hour South East of Paris. I will send you the coordinates. They are accepting a lot of 'big name' patients there. They have extra security and basically a luxury recovery section. There is even a screening process to get into this place, can you believe it? We're working on getting patient descriptions from some of the locals, but it's been difficult. However, someone thinks they might have seen an unconscious man meeting Quatre's descriptions." When Noin looked back at Heero, she showed the doubt that Heero was feeling.

"Thinks they might?" He raised a brow and she shook her head, shoulders hanging.

"I know, it's a long shot. But if you do the math on how long it would take to get from Seville to this location, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that they flew him over. That being said… if you want to act on this lead, you're going to want to do it soon. The longer you wait, the higher the risk that they're going to do irreversible damage."

"Understood. See if you can get a list together of VIPs hitting the CSO medical centers. It might help us figure out their plans."

"Already on it. We'll get what we can for you. Good luck."

The video conference ended and Heero immediately pulled out his phone to call up Trowa and Duo. They were the closest, though it would still take some time. It would be over a fifteen hour drive if they left from Seville.

When he hung up from his conversation with Trowa, he was satisfied to know that they were already en route to the French border. They were back tracking the CSO soldiers in case no further information turned up. Upon word from Heero, they confirmed that they would head straight for medical facility in their gundams.

He stood and exited the tent, scanning the area to find Carlino. Instead, he found Wufei supervising the start of camp breakdown. "We need to find Carlino. Trowa and Duo are heading towards a medical facility outside of Paris in their mobile suits. It's probably going to get dirty. We need to meet up with him to help secure Quatre and an escape route."

Wufei nodded and handed his clipboard over to one of the other soldiers. "I believe I saw him heading towards the suits just a few moments ago."

"Is Red Horse fully operational without the 'filtration unit'?" Heero asked as the two briskly walked past the other rebel soldiers and towards the area with the covered mobile suits.

"Yes… However do you think it wise to take her into a CSO battle? This will be the first confrontation since Isabella's departure. We can't be sure what will happen."

"Don't let her out of your sight then." Heero spotted Carlino and turned in his direction. Wufei stopped, a frown firmly in place and headed the opposite way, towards Red Horse.

000

When Quatre awoke, it took him a few moments to take in his surroundings.

The room was white—pristinely white. There was a light above him, blinding him and making it difficult to get a good look at anyone around him, and there were certainly people in the room. A few of them came and went, speaking to one another in French, if he were to guess based on the few words he could hear. Once his eyes adjusted, Quatre realized that the reason he couldn't distinguish any faces was because they were all covered by surgical masks.

That was the moment that the panic set in.

His body jolted into action, trying to quickly stand and flee the medical room. His last memories were of being captured by CSO. He doubted that he had been rescued during his unconsciousness. Unfortunately, Quatre couldn't escape. His wrists and ankles were shackled to the bedside, which was bolted into place. He couldn't even try to topple the bed.

"Ah, Mr. Winner, you're awake. Well, you certainly are a strong one, aren't you!" One of the masked men turned and spoke up. Though his face was hidden, Quatre had the feeling that the man was smiling. "We certainly didn't think the anesthetic would wear off so quickly. Not to worry. Another dose, and you'll be back under. You won't feel a thing."

"I don't believe I consented to any medical procedures," the Gundam pilot said coolly and clenched his jaw. Apparently a few of the others in the room were leaving, now that he was awake.

"How could you? You've been unconscious since we found you," the supposed doctor replied with a shrug. "But that's alright. We don't need your consent. You see, you've been infected. You only have a few hours left to live. By CSO's decree, we are to do whatever is necessary to save our patients from the virus released by the terrorist group known as 'the Seraphs'—even if the patient 'is' one of those terrorists."

Quatre struggled against his bonds again, wishing he had more time. He was more than willing to break his own hand if it meant being able to slip off one of the shackles. "Oh really? Strange. Because I've analyzed the compound and I know what's being released."

"Hmm, do you?" The doctor seemed to be humoring him, which only aggravated Quatre more. He thrashed about, if only to make it more difficult for the doctor to use the syringe he slipped out of his pocket.

"Stay away from me!" Quatre's voice verged on hysterical and his vision started to blur. He knew what was happening—it had happened before. However, usually his fits were brought on by the Zero system. Just as the pilot felt his control slipping and panic taking over, the syringe sank in to his arm.

He flailed for a few moments before his limbs became heavy and eventually felt like they were weighed down by cement.

"Now don't worry. When you wake up, you won't even remember this happened." And with that, he left.

Quatre did not fall into immediate darkness. His breathing slowed and his pulse evened out. He was conscious, but he did not know how long he would have before he was completely under again. When another figure walked through the door, he had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. "Isabella…"

The woman stood over his bedside, brushing a few strands from his face and pushing them back. "If you had suspicions about me on the Swift Trillion, you should have at least restrained me." She said, her voice cold and distant.

"Won't make that mistake… again," he said, pulling his head from her touch. She dropped her arm and smiled.

That smile. It infuriated him. She had been with them for a few months, and she had given them that same damn smile. But only now did he see it for what it was—an act. It didn't quite reach her eyes. Her bright blue, sparkling eyes had once helped make her seem to naïve but now, Quatre only saw the arrogance he should have seen earlier.

"You won't have the opportunity." Isabella turned and grabbed a round stool on wheels. She rolled it over and hopped up, leaning on the side of Quatre's bed. "When this is over, you'll probably live. The other pilots… they won't be as lucky."

"Why me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She said and shrugged, "you're a well known, wealthy young man. You're useful. Well, you're useful as long as we can control you. Don't worry, some of your friends might make it through this war. Relena, for example. I want nothing more than to see her grovel at my feet. I can't stand her. It took every ounce of my control to stick around once we reached the Sanc. So annoying."

"We'll never bow down to anyone—especially not you," Quatre growled, trying his hardest to discreetly work out of his bonds.

Isabella laughed. It was her same light and airy laugh, but it sounded almost hollow. "That's what Natalia Vitore said too, or something to that effect. It was only a matter of time before she needed to go in for a dental procedure. When she left, she had a headache and the strangest urge to follow CSO commands. We've already won, Quatre, don't you see? It's been a game of chess, all these years. While you've been busy trying to get through to the king, the queen's been wiping out your board."

Finally, he had to put his head back. The anesthetic was working its way through his body. He didn't have much time left.

"What do you get from this? Why would you want to wipe out the majority of the human population?"

"Moira thinks humanity is a waste. She wants to create a new world, a utopia. There will be no more colonies. The chosen will live on Earth, as they were always supposed to," Isabella said and spun around in her chair. Quatre tried to focus on her, but her image started to blur as she whirled around.

"What about you? Where do you fit in, in all of this?" His mouth was getting dry, and it was hard to speak. His eyes started to close.

"Me? I just want to live."

000

"What if he isn't here?" Duo asked through gritted teeth. He swung Deathscythe's arm, bring his thermal weapon across the Seal he was fighting. They had been at it for over an hour, but the damned dolls just kept coming. They had to be ridiculously careful with their attacks to keep from blowing up too many of their enemies. After all, they were still fighting in civilian territory, and couldn't risk any collateral damage.

"At the very least, we'll shut down the medical facility," Trowa replied, though he was still trying to hold out hope that Quatre was inside and safe, even if he didn't voice his thoughts to Duo. "Who knows how many politicians and corporate kings they're trying to lure in here. Maybe it will make people think twice about seeking help from CSO."

"Yeah, but it just feeds into the image that we're the bad guys! Why are we always the bad guys?!" Duo pulled his scythe out and thrust into the air, trying to lure some of the dolls to an empty highway instead of a residential block.

Trowa didn't respond. Their radar sensors started going off again, this time signaling the incoming support they were receiving. Wing Zero was leading the way with Altron and Red Horse in close pursuit. He would have been lying if he said he hadn't hoped for some of the other Seraphs to come in support, but he doubted that they would have been able to keep up anyhow, since they were flying in from almost three hours away.

Duo pulled up a group communication line. "About time the cavalry arrived," Duo said in a huff, "we were starting to think you left us out here on our own! What, and no support? Geeze, you're making this tough…"

"If you wanted easy, you're in the wrong line of work," Wufei snapped diving into the first swarm of dolls that neared him.

"Carlino is packing camp up. We stayed too long there. It wouldn't be long before CSO triangulated our location based upon timelines. Trowa, Duo, you two should go in after Quatre. We will hold off the outside attacks and clear an exit for you," Heero said, withdrawing his beam saber.

"How do we transport him after we have him?" Trowa asked and finished off with the Seals on his end. Most were heading for the group of three gundams, likely finding them to be the most immediate threat.

"Bring him to me," Red Horse's voice replied. Hearing Isabella's robotic voice in their speakers once more caused the gundam pilots to clench their jaws. "I can easily carry an extra person. If he is not conscious, bring a blanket for extra padding."

"Is there a reason you think he's unconscious?" Duo asked, perhaps a hit of venom in his voice. It was no secret that his already cold regard for Edan had become even icier since Isabella's departure. He usually refused to work with her directly.

"No," Red Horse responded simply. "I am merely offering another scenario."

"She's not wrong," Trowa said and idled Heavyarms. He holstered his hand gun and opened his cock pit. "We don't know what we will find. We should prepare for anything. I'm heading it."

000

The medical facility was in chaos. People were screaming in running, terrified of the gundams attacking. As Duo predicted, the attack did nothing to help their image. They heard the word 'Seraph' tossed around so frequently and in such disgust that Duo muttered something about getting Une and Relena on PR damage control.

"Here," Trowa said and waived Duo into his direction. The braided man saw that there were two doctors, knocked unconscious and slumped in the closet. "Put one of these on. We'll draw less attention while we look for Quatre." He threw one of the white lab coats over his arms and grabbed spare surgical masks and paper-like caps from one of the shelves.

Duo followed suit, wisely choosing to keep his long hair tucked under his coat. Who ever heard of a doctor with eighteen inches of hair? They clipped their stolen badges to the front of their coats and walked off, moving quickly, to try to find their comrade.

They looked in every room, peeking their heads in and quickly shutting the doors again before anyone caught a look at them. To most, they looked like employees checking on their patients. It was only a matter of time before someone stopped them. A woman, wearing a very nice hospital gown and holding a toddler in her arms, shouted at Duo when he looked in.

"Doctor, doctor!" She said frantically, jumping up from her bed. "What's happening? Have the terrorists come for us?" The boy in her arms had a head of curly hair and looked like he had cried himself to exhaustion.

Duo glanced down the hallway at Trowa, who was moving quickly, then backed to the woman. "No, no they haven't. They aren't terrorists. They aren't trying to hurt civilians, just stopping CSO. You'll be fine, don't worry. Just… just stay inside and away from the windows, just in case. Really, you're fine. Oh, and, uh, if you haven't done any medical procedures yet… don't do it. The vaccines have been contaminated."

The words came out of his mouth before he could really stop himself. He shut the door quickly and kept moving, pulling down the surgical mask to get a quick breath or two. Well, it hadn't necessarily been a lie. The vaccines weren't vaccines, so….

He pushed the moral dilemma to the back of his head and turned the corner. Trowa was standing at the door to a room, his gun drawn.

"Step away from him," Trowa said sternly, "one last time, I said step away from him. If you don't think I will shoot, you are severely mistaken."

Duo drew his own gun and ran forward, pointing into the room as well.

Three doctors were within, standing over Quatre's bedside. Their friend was unconscious with a respirator over his face and an IV drip hooked up, among other things. Part of his head was blocked by an opaque plastic sheet. One of the doctors had his hands on a free standing device that seemed to operate on its own.

The men raised their hands, but the device continued to hum. They stepped back as they were directed.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it," Trowa said. The men looked at one another.

"The procedure has already begun," replied one of the men, his words dripping with a heavy, eastern European accent. "You are too late."

"I said stop it," the pilot said, forcefully accenting each word. The doctor who stood closest to the machine pressed three buttons, one after another, and the device stopped—though Trowa couldn't see what it was doing in the first place from his angle. "Duo, grab the gurney to the right of me."

Duo didn't need to be told twice. He stepped around Trowa and wheeled the gurney inside, moving it next to Quatre's body. "Get him disconnected and loaded up."

"His body needs time to recover," the same doctor spoke, "it could be disastrous to move him while he is in such a state."

"Now." Trowa focused his gun at the man who had been speaking. The doctor quickly nodded and started to undo the restraints that kept Quatre down and remove the medical devices that were attached to his body. The three doctors carefully moved their patient onto the gurney.

Once Quatre was loaded up, Duo gave a quick glance at Trowa. When he received a nod, Duo turned and used his firearm to smack the two closest doctors in their heads, knocking them out cold. "Can't have you reporting us, now can we," the gundam pilot said, stalking towards the last doctor, who was begging to be left alone in his native tongue. Duo knocked him out anyhow.

Carefully, they started to wheel Quatre from the room. As they started to shut the door, Duo slipped back in a grabbed a clean white blanket from a seat in the corner of the room. As Edan had suggested, it would probably make Quatre's ride to safety more comfortable. He left the room and secured the door, shooting the handle. The shot wasn't too loud, compared to the rest of the chaos in the facility. At least now it would take anyone a while to notice that one of the patients was missing.

Trowa and Duo pulled up their masks and started to move the gurney towards the loading dock, walking slow and steady, as if they belonged.

They had made it just about the entire way before they were stopped. There were some CSO soldiers still in the building, though most paid them no mind since they were too busy dealing with the outside attack. Two of them stood by the loading bay doors, causally standing guard in case anyone thought to come in through the 'back entrance.'

"Hey, what are you doing? There hasn't been any alerts for patient transport," one of the men shouted, nearing the pilots. "This patient isn't even suitably prepped for movement! What the hell do you—"

Before he had a chance to create any more of scene, Trowa's arm shot out and punched the soldier in the jaw. The man stumbled back in surprise and raised his weapon, as did the other. Trowa turned and raised his leg, kicking the soldier back a few more feet into his partner. Duo abandoned the gurney and dove on the first soldier, wrestling him to the ground and wrapping his arm around the man's neck. It took a few moments of gasping, but the first soldier was unconscious.

Trowa grabbed the other soldier's weapon, a semi automatic strapped over his shoulder. They fought over the weapon for a few moments, but Trowa's ultimate goal was to get the strap from under his arm. He worked the man's arm below the strap so it was over just the man's neck, then he tightly wound it cutting off the soldier's air supply.

"C'mon man, I thought we were trying not to kill them," Duo said cautiously, standing up once more. Trowa looked over him, then back at the soldier, who had gone bug eyed. He lightened up on the pressure and waiting for the man to also fall unconscious, then released him.

Duo was right. They were trying to save as many lives as they could. Who knew how many were willing CSO participants, and how many were forced to serve. Trowa stepped to the side and reached out to hit the large red button that would open up the double doors to the loading dock ramp.

There was a gunshot, and a bullet just narrowly missed his hand.

Duo and Trowa whipped around, weapons drawn.

"Isabella," Duo seethed through gritted teeth.

"Drop your weapons," said the woman, her finger on the trigger, "or I swear I will shoot you both, so help me God."

Duo's lips curled upwards in a dark smile, "oh please, you're a terrible shot."

"Maybe I was faking it. I'm pretty good at that, you know." Isabella squeezed her trigger just a little bit more.

"No, no, you weren't faking that. I would have been able to tell if you were deliberately missing during our target practice. You are, legitimately, a horrible shot. You were probably aiming for Trowa and missed. I, on the other hand, won't miss." Duo let off a warning shot, which went whizzing by her ear. The shock was clear across her face. She couldn't hide that.

In retaliation, she pulled the trigger two more times. She was standing decently far away however, and did, in fact, miss. Duo moved his arm just an inch and was fully prepared to blow the traitorous girl's prized brains out.

"Duo," Trowa said lowly, "what did you just tell me."

The braided pilot snarled in response while Trowa hit the button to open the doors.

"I wouldn't waste a bullet on her. She'll get what's coming to her," Trowa said and stepped forward, grabbing the edge of the gurney and pulling it towards him. Duo stood perfectly still, his violet eyes staring down the girl's blue ones. After a few more moments, he started to back up, gun still trained on Isabella. Once he was outside, on the dock, his hand snapped out, pressing the outside button, closing the doors on her once again.

The two of them loaded Quatre into one of the ambulances, using a set of keys they had stolen off of its driver before they had even entered the building. Duo drove while Trowa sat in the back to watch over the unconscious pilot.

"I can't believe you stopped me. She isn't like the other soldiers, we know she's working for them willingly," Duo said, his voice loud in aggravation, though he wasn't necessarily yelling at Trowa.

"Yeah, but we may end up needing her when this is all done," Trowa replied, smoothing down Quatre's hair and trying to get a look at what was done to him. There were a few flecks of blood in his pale blonde hair and a clean, precise incision. "Once this is all over, if we win, there may be a lot of damaged people left. We need to preserve our resources, even if we'd rather set them adrift in space."

Duo fell silent. There were words on the tip of his tongue, but he chose to hold it instead. He focused on the road ahead of him, avoiding bits of rubble and some destroyed Seals. Trowa got onto his wireless communicator and gave Red Horse instructions to meet them and help them load up Quatre.

000

When the group left the scene, they used Isabella's Empty Space program to keep them off of CSO's radar's. Wing Zero led the way, directing the group towards the boarder of Germany. Edan had confirmed that there were no known CSO bases near the Black Forest, which was the location of the next closest rebel base. Carlino was already in the process of divvying up his men amongst other locations, and shutting down the Portuguese camp site.

Red Horse took it easy, trying her hardest not to jostle around her extra passenger as she jetted through the air. Both Heavyarms and Altron hung back just a bit, to make sure that Red Horse didn't face any problems—either from possible attacks, or gently landing.

Once she was safely docked, with her cockpit opened, the other gundam pilots used a raising platform to carefully move Quatre from Red Horse to the ground. Trowa led the way, sending out brief orders to the other rebels in the camp. Carlino wasn't there yet with Sandrock, but at least he had warned the leaders of the camp to just go along with whatever the gundam pilots said.

It was just after sunset, but in the forest, it seemed to be so much later. The light barely came through the thick tree line, causing some of the camp residence to start turning on flood lights for a few more hours of work. As Trowa and Duo pushed and pulled the make shift gurney, Heero could be seen pulling out his phone just as they turned the corner.

"Do you know what they did to him?" Wufei asked, as Edan was left standing along at the foot of Red Horse. It was better for her to stay out of the way.

The young woman shrugged and shook her head, but brought her hand to her left temple, brushing it back into her hair. Wufei nodded.

The implants. She suspected they had tried to put in a neurochip. Who was to say how far that managed to get, and if they had succeeded in taking Quatre out of the rebellion?

"If they did something, can you reverse it?"

She shook her head quickly. That was far beyond her capability. She couldn't even fix herself. At least, that's what Wufei thought she was saying.

"They'll call us if they need us. Come. We'll patch up Nataku—she sustained more damage-then we'll move onto Red Horse." Wufei turned to walk back towards his own gundam, but the woman's arm reached out and grabbed him. He no longer reacted defensively when she did that. He turned back around to see her patting down her pockets for scraps of paper and her pen. She found a piece and scribbled onto it before handing it over.

Why do you call her 'Nataku?'

Wufei looked at the note and then carefully folded it up, placing it in his own pocket, his jaw tightening. "That… is a question for another day." This time, when he turned and went towards the towering green gundam, Edan followed.

000

Author's Note: We're winding down towards the end. I have always imagined Quatre as a VIP, even if he tries to stay in the shadows. He had a natural leader personality and people generally like him. He could likely take over any organization and do rather well at it. He would be someone the 'new' CSO would have definitely wanted.

To my lovely reviewer Pat: I think there's some debate on Duo and Pestilence. I believe he refers to his Doctor as "Old Man Pestilence," likely in reference to the Horsemen. I contemplated making him Plague because of this, however Pestilence/Plague rides a white horse, and I wanted to keep him with a black gundam. That is why he technically became Famine, but he never never piloted Black Horse because he was rescued before he could go through the final procedures to be able to pilot it.

On a whim, I started a Gundam Wing/Sailor Moon crossover fic. It's called "Cosmic Apathy." If that's your sort of thing and you're liking this story well enough, perhaps check it out and let me know what you think?

Thanks for reading!

Ever Your Servant,

A.F