After Colony: Revelation

Part II: Verse VI

000

Quatre was unconscious for almost a week. The camp had enough resources to set up a suitable medical bay for the pilot, who was doing alright besides not waking. When he finally awoke, he said he felt like death had taken his body for a joy ride.

"I think that the medical facilities CSO is setting up are specifically for this sort of procedure," he said, sipping on his first glass of water since waking. He had hardly been able to keep anything he ingested down for another two days, meaning they had to continue a steady IV drip to keep him nourished. "They're screening out people they want to keep alive and putting a chip in their heads. I'm guessing that they can command these priority individuals remotely—Isabella mentioned Natalia Vitore."

"It's as we suspected," Trowa said with a nod from his seat. "Vitore had not willingly gone alone with CSO's plans. She was being controlled so that she could get CSO access to the city, and lure the most people together at once for them to set off the biological warfare agent."

"Yes," Quatre replied gravely. "It is no virus. If you read my email, which I had sent just before I was captured, then you know that it is a nerve gas. Once it is inhaled by a human being, it will be absorbed into their bloodstream and eventually just shut off the brain. It does take a few hours to kick in, but it only affects humans. Animals and plant life will be unaffected. This is literally a ploy to wipe out humankind."

"She is mentally unstable," Wufei muttered and paced about the room a bit, shaking his head.

"Obviously," Quatre replied. He brought his cup back to his mouth and carefully poured the water down the back of his throat. "Unfortunately, I cannot promise I will be reliable. We have no idea the extent of CSO's procedure. I do not know if I have been compromised. Additionally, I am suffering from bouts of narcolepsy, just as Duo did when we initially pulled him from CSO." He set his cup down in his lap and sighed, as if resigning himself to his fate.

"Woah, what's that supposed to mean?" Duo asked, sitting up straight. He had been leaning back, balancing on the back to legs of his chair beforehand.

"It means… that you probably shouldn't expose me to any important plans. It may be possible that CSO can tap into me. Anything I know, from here on out, could be susceptible to external sources. I will certainly continue to do all I can to help… but if there is something that is meant to be confidential, then I think it best to keep it from me, at least until we know that Moira cannot use me to her advantage."

Quatre let his words sink in with the others. He gave Trowa a small smile, though the other pilot did not return it. His mask was near flawless, but Quatre saw through it. He knew his companion well enough to see to mix of emotions running through Trowa's mind.

"What do you intend to do in the mean time?" Heero asked, standing nearby with his arms crossed.

"I think my best bet, at the moment, is to sit in front of a computer and try to track CSO movements. I shouldn't be the only one, of course, but I can try to search out next attack zones."

Heero gave a curt nod. "I agree. I think that would also be best."

"While I've been confined to bed, I've had an interesting thought that I would like to run by you all," Quatre said, working to sit up a little straighter. "We know that the CSO devices have operated under the cover of radiation filtration devices for their mobile suits. The reason it had never been questions is because they emit low levels of basically harmless radiation, enough to be detected with the right equipment, but not enough to actually harm someone. It made perfect sense for the device to be present in the suits.

"Now with that being said, if that radiation is detected in somewhere unusual, say, for example, a fair ground or a parking garage, I think we can safely say we know what's causing it. There are sensors all across the world that can be used to detect that radiation—labs, research centers, even schools. If Moira hasn't thought to block access to those systems, we shouldn't have much problem tapping into them and pulling their data. We may be able to find targeted sites and stop the attacks before they happen."

The pilots looked from one another, some with thoughtful expressions on their faces. "That's… a really good idea," Trowa said after a few moments. Quatre shrugged.

"I've had a lot of time to think. It's been an idea that I've been forming since before I was captured. I didn't have time to test out the theory at the lab, which is probably a good thing, now that I think about it. CSO might have caught on, if they had found out I was using the lab's radiation sensors." He looked around at all of the eyes on him, who clearly wanted to know if he had any other useful information. "Could I… please have another glass of water?"

Edan was the one to quickly turn from his bedside and leave the tent for his drink. Quatre was already feeling exhausted again, even though he had only woken about an hour earlier. It was going to be a long night.

There was a little bit of chatter in the medical tent, most of it coming from Duo, though Trowa interjected a few words, if only to make Quatre feel more comfortable.

"Noin and Zechs are married," Heero said out of the blue, when the conversation started heading into the direction of frivolous talk. Both Quatre's and Duo's jaws dropped.

"Well… good for them," the blonde pilot said with a tired smile, "I'm glad Zechs is well enough to make it official now. Quicker than I expected though…"

"Knowing Noin," Wufei said with almost a smile, "she didn't give him much of a choice."

"Dorothy officiated," Heero added. "Zechs is still recovering. The gunshot wound did its damage. He won't likely be able to return to the front lines for a few months."

Duo scowled and tightly crossed his arms across his chest, shaking his head. "Damn it, Dorothy! Stealing my thunder! That was supposed to be my thing! I was going to get around to getting ordained one of these days!"

"I think you've been saying that for the past four years," Quatre chuckled and then sighed. His head started swaying as Edan entered with a water bottle and a fresh cup. She cracked it opened, poured it, and gave him the filled glass. "Thank you… I'm sorry, guys, but I don't know how much more help I will be at the moment. My head is just killing me. It hurts to keep my eyes open."

"We'll leave you be," Trowa said quickly before any of the others could say differently. "If you need anything, shout. Someone will hear you."

Quatre nodded and let Edan adjust his pillow for him before he lay back down. "Thanks…"

000

Une was able to provide the most help in lining up radiation sensors and recording their data. Because of her former role as the Preventer's Coordinator, she had contacts who knew and trusted her. They were able to create a simple network which needed very little communication, to keep the risk of exposure to a minimum. One by one, radiation sensors were configured with any spikes being sent to both Une and Heero, and their teams respectively. From there, they agreed to keep someone on constant watch so that if something was detected, they could contact any of the rebel camps and alert them to the danger.

One particularly interesting fact they found was that the colonies seemed to be safe from the biological warfare agent. The security systems in place would immediately kick on in the event that any sort of radiation was detected, outside of areas where small amounts were expected. Those areas, however, had failover procedures to contain any breaches. In effect, the colonies were the safest place to be—though the rebels expected that Moira probably had something different planned for the colonies.

"We've managed to get a hold on a few of the dispersal units," Une said on her call with Heero and Trowa. "Our men have been able to achieve best time of about three minutes. I hope it will be enough. We haven't found much on our sensors. According to the schematics Edan supplied us with, only the mobile dolls have the unit. The Seals are not equipped, though they do have significant explosives for self destruction. I suppose that's not exactly surprising."

Their next week passed by, and it made the rebels restless. Their suits were plastered on every TV screen and computer monitor from the medical facility's attack. Reporters made them out to be monsters trying to target the innocent. Besides the bad publicity, it seemed Moira was content to hold her tongue.

The only spikes they had found indicating the CSO warfare devices were present, were at CSO bases. Though they were certainly arriving or being built, they had not yet moved them to any new locations. It seemed far more likely that they were simply waiting for something.

Additionally, after Howard had managed to get a hold of a mostly intact Seal and mobile doll, he took them apart piece by piece. Though the rebels were able to track the movement of the devices when they were being placed in the cities, they couldn't keep count of the ones that may have been in the mecha. Not all had fully equipped "filtration" devices—which was likely partially responsible for no cases of bizarre civilian deaths after a battle—but they could potentially carry the compounds.

So, unless they could stop all of the Seal and mobile suits from ever nearing civilians, Moira still had a chance to disperse the agent without them having a chance to stop it. Though if she did, she would reveal her role in the scheme and the public would turn on her.

They suspected they were okay for now, but the rebels were certainly sure that things could become much worse, much faster than they would have liked.

000

It was a nice night, despite it being mid October in the Black Forest. Many of the soldiers were sitting on benches and make shift seats in front of a projector they rigged up. They watched an old, old movie. Wufei thought that they mentioned something about 'the living dead,' but he hadn't seen the black and white film. He couldn't be sure, and he didn't feel like asking Duo, who was sitting in the front row, yelling at the screen about zombie bites.

Quatre had been sitting outside for a little while, taking a break from his endless research, but was not amused when the camp members chose to put on the movie. He found it insensitive, considering what they had found at the Isle of Man facility. He had been most concerned about Edan, thinking she would be upset by the movie, but instead, she sat in the far back atop of a picnic table. Quatre and Trowa took their opportunity to walk around the camp unbothered—it was the first time that Quatre had felt good enough to walk around on his own for a bit.

Heero, apparently, was forced to have a long conference call with Relena, who was upset that he hadn't been including her in his plans. While it was supposed to be an enlightening, she did mostly scolding, and he occasionally offered up a few words while he scrolled through data below her online video conference window.

Wufei had done all of the meditating he could. The sun was going down, however, and the men in the camp started to get louder. Some of them were enjoying the movie, some of them enjoying their drink. "This film seems utterly ridiculous. An average person could easily fight off these creatures." He hopped up onto the other end of the picnic table crossed his arms. "I'm not going to tell you again—you should have a jacket on. I swear, I think you do this on purpose, just for attention."

Edan rolled her head over to look at Wufei, her brow slightly raised. He rolled his eyes at her. Finally, she decided to stop leaning back on her uncovered arms and reached down next to her. From the side of the bench she pulled a canvas jacket.

"See? Attention. You're ridiculous."

The woman put the jacket on and pulled a pen from her breast pocket. As usual, her notebook was sitting next to her, though it was hard to see what she wrote, when she scribbled something and handed it over to Wufei. He had to turn it toward the light coming from the projector screen.

I think I've seen this movie before. When I was a kid.

Wufei turned quickly, masking his surprise. This was the first time the woman had ever given any indication of having memories beyond about five years earlier. "Oh?" He handed the notebook back so that she could continue.

I don't remember the plot, or the actors. I don't remember actually watching it. It just seems… nostalgic. It's an odd feeling. I don't like it.

"There's nothing wrong with remembering," Wufei offered, looking at the screen and momentarily wondering why he was even speaking. It wasn't like him to have a conversation with someone beyond the necessary professional ones.

It's an itch. I can't make it go away. I want to know, but it makes my head hurt. Halloween is soon.

Wufei frowned. Maybe she shouldn't remember the past. From what Isabella had told them, for whatever it was worth, Edan wouldn't have happy memories. Besides, who knew what sort of damage she could cause to herself if she… overloaded the neurochips, or something? "Yes, Halloween is soon, for those who celebrate it. I don't. I think it's ridiculous."

You think a lot of stuff is ridiculous.

"That's because a lot of stuff is ridiculous," he growled and leaned back. It always amazed him how bad acting used to be in the old films. Everything was so over dramatic and hardly believable at all.

I think I used to like Halloween.

"That's fine. You can like whatever you want to like." His words came out as almost a bark. Edan looked at him for a moment and then set her notebook down and returned to watching the movie.

It wasn't until she got up and walked away shortly after, leaving her notebook behind, that he realized she had been trying to have a legitimate conversation with him. Well, he never claimed to be good with women. He stared at the screen for almost ten minutes, without actually watching a single scene. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he flipped through the notebook pages to see what she had written.

He could basically identify who she was speaking with, based upon the context of most of the sentences. Most of them he remembered, because they were with him. In fact, almost all of them were his. Occasionally, he thought he saw something that may have been cued by Trowa or Quatre, but hardly anything from Heero, and certainly nothing from Duo. Wufei was the only one she actually 'talked' with.

Wufei closed the notebook and threw it back down, in case she came back for it. He decided he would give meditation one last shot for the evening—this time with Nataku.

000

Their brief moment of reprieve lasted for a total of fifteen and a half days before they received an alarm signaling the movement of one of the CSO devices. This time, it was nearby—Stuttgart. To make matters worse, the device was being unloaded into a large mall in the center of civilization.

"Get the power grid shut down," Quatre called out immediately, rallying the technicians they had on hand. "It should be pretty easy if they aren't expecting it—we can get it shut down and keep it down. That should get people off the streets and hopefully into homes."

Trying to fight off CSO was certainly harder when they had to worry about stepping on civilians who may be running about the streets. Additionally, since it was a city, many of the people actually lived in nearby suburbs. If the city went dark, it may encourage people to get out of the city. It would almost work as an unplanned evacuation.

While Quatre remained behind, the other four pilots and Edan hurried to their suits. If they wanted to lay low, driving would have been the other route. However, they doubted they would have time. Instead, they used the Empty Space to hide their base location. They already knew that suits were surrounding the city so they needed to plan on fighting, and they could get their fast.

In just over a half hour, they were engaged in combat.

"First two to be able to ditch the CSO military should go for the device, whoever is left will hold off the Seals for as long as possible. Carlino's men are trying their best to hold off the reinforcements, but they can't get all of them," Duo said through gritted teeth, pushing one of the enemies from his gundam with Deathscythe's shoulder.

There would be more destruction with this battle, but they wouldn't have to worry as much about casualties. Still, Duo made an effort to stop the Seal from crashing into the closest clusters of buildings. Trowa was on the outskirts of the town, the furthest away from the other gundams and rebels. He aimed at the incoming Seals, choosing to let his bullet spray land out in the nearby woods.

Wing Zero seemed to be the center of the attack

Edan and Wufei were the first ones to clear their surroundings enough to leave their gundams and make a run for the empty mall, gas masks strapped to their sides. It was large and upscale—if they hadn't cut the power grid, it probably would have been packed with people. Edan shot at the door as they ran up, and once the lock was completely blown off, Wufei kicked it open.

They hardly paused to get into the building, which was good because more than a few soldiers would be hot on their trail within moments. Once they realized that Red Horse and Alton had stopped moving and wouldn't be continuing, they would know that the rebel pilots had gone for the device.

Security lights were flashing, though there weren't many since the backup generator was likely starting to die after running for so long.

"Security room is on this floor, towards the center," Wufei said as they ran, though they had both looked at the layout before they left their gundams. He led the way and she trailed just behind him. It was eerie, running through the empty building with the only sound being their boots as they moved. It was eerie to consider that if CSO had their way, innocent people would have been lining the hallways, dead.

The room was locked, of course, but that hardly stopped Wufei, who stepped back and kicked it open. Neither wanted to use their firearm until they saw what was on the other side of the door. Once it was opened, all they saw was a normal security room illuminated by the glow of nine monitors. Well that, and the sleek white CSO device sitting in the corner, next to the air vent, with a convenient timer placed on top.

One minute and forty seven seconds left, and counting.

They may have been able to evacuate most of the town, but Wufei knew that there was still a great deal of people boarded up in their houses, avoiding the mobile suit battle going on right outside. The dispersal unit in front of him contained enough that it would be sucked up through the vents to the outside, and then it would sink to the ground and hang there until a strong enough wind came by. Even once it did, the nerve agent had a huge range of coverage and would catch anyone within at least the next five blocks.

That included the rebel forces currently working to clear the streets of masked CSO soldiers.

"We can't make it," Wufei snapped, slamming his fist onto the desk with such force that he toppled a mug filled with cold coffee. "After all of this, we can't make it."

Edan knelt down and ran her hands along the metal.

"What's the point," he growled and bowed his head. He was furious. If only they had been a little bit faster. If they had just another two minutes, they would have been okay. He could have disabled the device in enough time. He looked up to tapping.

The woman was trying to catch his attention. She held her connection cord in her hand and was uncapping the two ends. She plugged one end into the device and sat against the wall, raising the other to her head.

"Could it work?" He asked and stepped forward. She shrugged and looked down at the timer. They didn't have much choice. He frowned but nodded anyhow. "I will protect you while you're connected."

Wufei watched the woman with unease as she prepared to plug into the sleek metal box. Her jaw clenched and she stared back at him, and he understood that she was saying 'farewell,' in case she did not see him again.

In case she failed.

He ignored the buzzing of his communicator for just a moment longer and nodded, though he found his voice refused to respond. She inserted the sharply pointed end of her connection cable into the implant, sending a jolt through her body before her muscles stiffened.

000

Edan hardly ventured into the world of the CSO cyber system. She usually left that for Isabella. However, with mere minutes before the biological warfare device's 'explosion,' she felt she had no choice but to try to disarm the device internally.

It took her a bit to get her bearings—she was thrown off by the fact that her mind believed her to be standing in Isabella's tower, back at the manor in Italy. While it did appear to be her 'friend's' room, a closer inspection showed that the things were set up for Moira. There was no brightly color coded organization system, no knickknacks displaying Isabella's interests. The actual tower had once been simply filled with the blonde woman: she had posters from her favorite bands and movies, copies of books she had read over and over again, even a bundle of neon shoe laces she used to replace her dull sneaker laces.

Here, it was cold. The desk tops and key boards were black, there were framed papers on the walls, but most of them were certificates of recognition. Upon closer inspection, Edan saw that they had Moira's name.

Well, sort of.

Everything, down to her own skin, was made up of a small series of numbers, constantly moving. None of it was real. It was all in her mind—or at least, in the neurochips implanted in her head.

Edan sat down at the computer, pressing the space bar on the keyboard. The monitors woke up from their apparent 'sleep' state, only to show a countdown that likely matched the one that Wufei saw at that very moment. She rubbed her eyes and set to work, even though she had no idea where to even begin.

Immediately, she found that there was nothing she could do. There was no way to clear the timer from the screen. No matter what she did, it continued to run. Slamming her hands down, she decided to press the power button. Nothing happened. She pulled the power cord, but the moment she looked to see if the screen shut off, it only materialized back into the outlet.

She jumped up in frustration. She didn't have much time.

She looked behind the monitor and found a small drive plugged into the back. Edan reached back and pulled it.

The tower image around her darkened, and she was soon left standing in what seemed to be… nothing. The driver was still in her hand.

"DeBordaris should have killed you when he had the chance," Moira's voice said, echoing through the apparent empty space. Edan whipped around, but saw no one. "You've always been more trouble than you're worth."

An image of the older Adelphie woman seemed to materialize in the darkness and walk towards Edan, one hand on her hip.

"I would say 'hand over the drive and you won't be hurt.' However, that would be a lie. I look forward to hurting you quite a bit." The woman hardly looked like her usual, business-suited self. It looked like she wore a black spandex outfit with white lines at a few of the seams.

Something akin to a nightstick appeared in Moira's hand, finally indicating to Edan that she should run—run somewhere, anywhere but there. However, even though she turned and sprinted forward, Moira was in front of her moments later.

"You can't run. Where would you go? This is my world. I can create anything I want in here. And most importantly, I can make you feel pain." Moira was upon the shorter woman in an instant, smacking her across the face in full force.

Edan stumbled back, completely unprepared to feel a real blow in a virtual world. More so, she wasn't expecting to feel pain. Her jaw felt like it was on fire. For the first time in years, she knew what it was to feel something, even if it was pain.

"Such a fool," Moira spat, walking forward, bringing her weapon down on Edan's shoulder, "to think you could come in here and stop me… What did you expect? Did you think it would be that easy? Did you think you could be a hero? That everyone would love you for stopping the sinister CSO? How pathetic."

Edan hunched over, trying to protect herself as she was repeatedly beat down, blood pouring from her lip and bruises quickly forming. It was hard to concentrate through the pain. It was such a foreign concept. Finally, her own anger seemed to catch up, and a long black pole formed in her hand.

Why was it that a Bo Staff materialized in her hand, of all things, Edan had no idea. But she brought it up and met Moira's weapon in mid air before it could hit her again. The Adelphie woman snarled and lashed out, but Edan had little trouble disarming her. Between the two of them, only one was a fully trained fighter.

"How dare you think to manipulate my world! I will slaughter you!" Moira snapped and lunged forward. With one clean spin, Moira was on the ground and Edan stood above her. For a few moments, the older woman glared up the length of the staff—and then she grinned maliciously. "Feel free to kill me, if you want. It won't matter. This is just a digital copy of myself. All you'll do is kick me out of the system, temporarily."

Edan did not hesitate to put pressure on the staff, digging it into Moira's neck. "But, if you do not give me back that driver, I swear, not only will I come for you, I will come for those pilot friends of yours too."

Moira's words caused Edan to freeze, and she used the opportunity to move the staff from her throat.

"I swear I will. I will kill each and every one of them, in awful ways. But you know who I'll come for first? What's his name… Wufei?" Moria slowly stood, her grin still dancing on her lips. "Oh yes, Isabella says you're quite… taken… with him. Does he know? Hm? Does he know that somewhere in your CSO-owned-heart you have 'feelings' for him?" The woman circled Edan, laughing—no, near 'cackling.'

"My father wanted that part removed, you know. The part that lets you feel emotion and attachment. When I designed the neurochips, I chose to leave it in. To let you feel just barely human, but never to be able to act upon it. I find it very satisfying, knowing that toys like you care for something you can never have. Now, just hand over the driver, and maybe I will consider—"

Edan spun around and brought her Bo Staff flying against Moira's neck. There was a sickening crack, and the woman's body disappeared as it started to fall towards the ground.

She stood still for a few moments, her own weapon disappearing from her hands after she had no more reason for it.

Her hands clenched together into tight fists, squeezing down on the small driver that likely signified the destruction codes for the biological warfare devices. Edan's body trembled, and she let out a silent scream, crushing the driver and letting it fall away into a series of numbers. Soon, the black world started to turn red, beginning with area right around her body.

Once it seemed to overtake everything else, objects started for form. By the time she realized what was happening, Edan was standing in what appeared to be the gazebo back at Quatre's manor.

Moira no longer had control of this particular slice of the CSO system. This was Edan's, and the access codes to the CSO system were embedded into the wood of the red gazebo.

000

Author's Notes: I contemplated holding off posting this for a little bit longer. It's weird for me to think that in about three chapters, something I've devoted so many years (off and on, admittedly,) working on writing, is just going to be done. When I've completed other stories, they kinda haven't had much of a plan. I've just sorta kept writing and BAM, done. But this one... Well, I knew the ending from the very beginning, and everything has led up to it even if it seems a little bit rushed. In reality, life is abrupt, and I think this sort of reflects it.

Pat: thank you so much for sticking with me for so long! Your consistent reviews have certainly helped me stay motivated in posting!

To my other readers, we'll be wrapping up here probably by the end of July/Mid August, so thank you, thank you, thank you for reading!

Ever Your Servant,

A.F