After Colony: Revelation
Part II: Verse IX
000
Heero could safely say that he had never been in a fight like this in his entire life. Of course he had been in numerous "fight to the death" matches, but he had never been hanging on by such a thread in his life. The problem was the fact that DeBordaris no longer seemed human—and that was really saying something, coming from Heero.
Even if Heero put all of his might into a punch that should have broken a normal person's neck, his opponent simply rebounded. He was using every tactic he knew just to make the man stay down. Heero had already lost his gun, having it knocked away somewhere in the dark when DeBordaris initially tackled him.
Unlike the neurologically enhanced CSO soldier, Heero knew he was feeling pain though he worked to suppress it and move on. His left shoulder was dislocated, his knee was very nearly busted, and he probably should have been unconscious with a concussion by now. Heero had blood running down the side of his temple, lip, and nose, but he continued on.
DeBordaris had blood pouring down his face as well, but he made no motion to wipe it away. He likely couldn't even feel the liquid at that moment. While Heero was sure he had managed to fracture a fair share of DeBordaris's bones, it hardly seemed to make a difference.
They had somehow managed to make their way to the second floor, fighting their way up the grand staircase and around the railed in hallways. It was hard to see where he was going in the dark, though it didn't seem to faze DeBordaris. Heero had just a brief moment of reprise before his opponent ran at him again—this time with some sort of sickening gurgle.
He was wild in his movements, no longer as precise as he once was. Heero had to wonder if there was some sort of issue with his neurochips, because it was such a drastic change. Whatever it was, however, couldn't have come a moment too soon. DeBordaris jerked forward to try to grab him, and Heero quickly ducked down. He kicked the man's legs from under him, then Heero used his force from springing back up to lift the man as he started to fall a top of him.
Though his arm may have been dislocated, he had enough power and control raise the heavier man over the railing and let him topple over the side. Heero hurried to look below once he heard DeBordaris's body hit the floor.
He had grazed one of the large, heavy marble statues. Heero found he was slightly holding his breath as he watched the chiseled statue, which was much taller than the average man, teeter for a few moments from being hit with such force, and then lean forward. Before DeBordaris could come to his senses enough to move, the statue collapsed onto him with a sickening 'crunch.'
It might not have been the way he had been trained to take out an opponent, but Heero accepted the fact that in fighting an unusual enemy, unusual measure needed to be taken.
"Duo…" Heero muttered looked around, trying to get his bearings. He ran back around to the grand staircase and hurried down, his knee making an awkward popping sound, retracing his steps towards where they were separated.
It took him time, too much time, before he heard gun shots—two of them. He turned the corner and headed in the direction he believed he heard them from, but was faced with a few different hallways. He paused to listen, and was rewarded with Duo's sudden cries.
Heero tracked down the other gundam pilot within in moments.
He grit his teeth, regretting he didn't have his gun as he entered the room. Isabella stood on one side, slightly hiding behind a high backed chair, and on the other was Duo letting out yells and groans with a bleeding body of a woman next to him. Heero assumed it was Moira, though her head was mostly obscured by some sort of head piece.
"Duo, Duo," Heero said, raising his voice over his comrade's cries, though trying to keep from startling him. He glared over at Isabella when Duo seemed not to have heard him. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," she snapped, keeping herself shielded—not that it would help if he decided to shoot her through the chair. "He shot Moira, then lost it!"
Heero carefully crept over to the bleeding body and checked for a pulse. The woman was certainly dead, there was no doubt about it. "How do I stop him?"
Isabella looked over at the gundam pilot, a sneer on her face. "How should I know, he's the one who suddenly lost his mind. I suppose Moira got to him before he could do her in, that or…" She paused and looked to the side, raising a brow in thought.
"Talk fast if you want to live," Heero said, stepping over to Duo and quickly snapping the gun from his hands. Duo didn't even seem to notice his presence. Heero looked over him and shook his head. There was really only one thing he could do if he didn't want Duo to hurt himself. He flipped the gun in his hand and struck the screaming pilot with the handle.
Duo's mouth fell open as he quieted and fell to his knees. Within moments, he was peacefully laying on the ground. Isabella stood and walked out from behind the chair.
"It's possible that Moira's conscious is still inside the system. We theorized that if one of us with the neurochips were to die while hooked into the updated Hades system, the system that controls all of CSO's networks, the information from the neurochips would simply download into the system, where it could essentially continue living through data transmissions," she said, speaking quickly just as directed.
From down below, she could see that Edan's internal struggle must have kicked back in, judging by her thrashing.
"That's insane," Heero replied in his normal deadpan voice. With no more screaming, the room was quiet—minus the sound of steady dripping from Moira's blood and the fans running in her computer setup.
"It was insane, until she integrated the Zero System into Hades. That was her goal from the start—she wanted the Zero System so that she could control basically anything set up on an electrical grid. The only reason she hasn't essentially stopped the world is because Edan unknowingly shut down the integral part of the CSO network. Moira's confined to this house, for now. But as soon as she get's access to the system again…"
"Understood." Heero raised his gun and started shooting out the computer setup.
"What the hell?!" Isabella shouted and ran up to stop him, but he turned and pointed the gun at her. She skid to a stop and raised her hands. "If you do that, we'll be trapped down here! At least let me raise the house again before you destroy everything!"
Heero stared down at the young woman for a few moments, gun still trained on her. Part of him severely wanted to shoot. However, he knew that she was right. If he wanted to get out, or more importantly, if he were going to get the others out, then the house needed to be back on the surface. He let Isabella slowly walk to the computer system and use whatever wasn't damaged to reverse the security precaution.
000
"Get a hold of yourself, Edan," Wufei shouted out with as much energy as he could muster, "focus!" It was useless. All he could do was pull weakly against his metal bounds and watch as the woman swayed back and forth, gritting her teeth and squeezing her head.
He did not know that Edan was seeing something completely different. However, the more he shouted, the more she could hear breaking through the barrier Moira had created.
"Stop fighting me," snapped Moira, or some distorted version of her. Parts of the gazebo were disappearing as Moira was able to tap back into the encoding and reverse the corruption.
As the surrounding area switched from the red gazebo to the dark basement, Edan felt something akin to dizziness. She couldn't quite focus on either. When she realized there was a gun in her hand, she couldn't remember if it was real, or it was something she created. She pointed it at Moira regardless.
"Go ahead, shoot me, let's see if it works this time."
"Edan, stop!" Wufei shouted and tried to move from one side or the other. The gun was pointed at him.
As the worlds became more convoluted, and the gazebo was barely left standing, the figure in front of Edan shifted from Moira to Wufei, and back again. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, backing as far away from the figure as she could. She was trying her best to get a hold on reality.
Regardless of which world was real, it was just about too late. Moira had almost pulled what she needed from Edan's head and would be able to restart every piece of CSO technology across the world within minutes.
With one last look at Wufei, one he recognized as apologetic, she raised the gun to her own head and pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Even though he heard the gun shot and watched her body fall in the corner of the dimly lit room, Wufei was left in disbelief. He didn't even have the chance to tell her not to do it, that there was no reason for her to take the cowards way out. But he didn't know what was going on in her head. He couldn't have fathomed her reasons. And he was still chained to the damned floor.
Wufei resumed his struggle with his bonds, not caring that his wrists were in almost shreds. If he had been able to, he would have easily have broken his hand to try to slip from the metal shackles. The pain he felt hardly even bothered him—it was the tightness in his check and the pit in his stomach that kept him from focusing.
He looked over again at the woman's form, hoping to see any sign of movement. But there was nothing. She was completely still.
000
The house started moving back toward the surface, just as Isabella said. However, it was not smooth, and she did not move away from the computer.
"What's wrong?" Heero asked, a bit of aggravation in his voice—but only a bit.
Isabella growled in annoyance. "She's definitely in here—that bitch! She's trying to keep me from raising the house! I have to keep re-entering the command. Heero, do not be alarmed at what I'm going to do. All of our systems have a self destruct command –"
They heard a gunshot go off below them. Heero stepped back and walked to the section of the room with the glass floor. Almost directly below him, in the corner of the basement room, he could see Edan on the ground, gun in her hand, and blood starting to pool around her head.
"Edan. She's dead." He looked over at the blonde woman, who once proclaimed to be Edan's friend, for any sign of… well, anything.
Isabella paused what she was doing, staring at the screen before giving a small nod. "I see," she whispered. The house lurched once more. She cleared her throat and started speaking again. "As I was saying, there is a way to self destruct Moira's system from here. I am going to do it. It will keep her from trying to lower the house while we're escaping."
"Do it."
She continued typing and then quickly rolled backwards in her chair as a high pitched humming could be heard. Within an instant, there was hissing and sparking, and smoke coming from behind the computer set up. "There that should take care of it." Though the house continued to rise, it was not smooth.
"Where are the keys to Wufei's cuffs?" Heero asked, taking a moment to go look over Duo. While he wasn't ready to let his guard down, it seemed that their initial mission had been completed. Moira was eliminated, as was DeBordaris, and unfortunately Edan, it seemed.
Isabella shrugged. "That I don't know. While I can't say this is the first time someone's been locked up in the basement of one of my father's houses, I don't know where they keep… that sort of stuff when they aren't using it. If I were to guess, I would say Vince would have had them. Moira has no pockets."
Heero looked over at the dead woman and confirmed that she had no pockets—unless they were back pockets. He doubted she would have held the keys since DeBordaris was seen locking and unlocking Wufei's bonds in the video they received. "We're going to the front. Vince's body is in the main hall. I will come back for Wufei when we have the keys."
Opening her mouth to interject, Isabella quickly thought better of it and nodded. Heero bent down and hoisted Duo over his shoulder: not for the first time, but hopefully for the last. He had to put him over his right shoulder since his left arm wasn't fully functional. Regardless of the amount of strength he may or may not have had, he grabbed Isabella with his left hand and pulled her with him.
"Don't think this makes up for what you did," he stated as they started walking. Even though Isabella likely would have been able to pull away without much of a problem, she allowed him to guide her along. He thought perhaps it was a gesture of good faith.
They hardly stopped along their march to the main hallway, despite the rockiness of the house. If they had, they might have smelled the smoke that was coming from the control room and the distinct odor of an electrical fire. With the self destruction of Moira's system, which had its structure damaged by Heero's bullet holes, came the shutdown of the entire emergency system, including the smoke detectors.
When they reached the open area in front of the grand staircase, Heero nodded over to the slightly crushed corpse of Vince DeBordaris. "Look for the keys," he directed.
Isabella looked at him, horrified. "Me? But… he's dead! He's smashed! I don't want to touch that!"
Heero looked at her, giving her a hard look. "You were willing to take part in a genocide, but you don't want to touch one corpse?" If he had been an emotional person, he would have already displayed his extreme hatred for the blonde woman. If she had not already known and expected that, the way his words almost seethed certainly reinforced that statement.
Isabella gulped and nodded, looking down at the gun he held tightly in his right hand.
She cautiously walked over to DeBordaris's body as if afraid it would spring to life at any moment. When he did not move, she knelt down and started reaching into his pockets. It was hard for her to do while trying to ignore the dark blood that seemed glossy even in the dimly light hall. Her first try was unsuccessful so she walked around to his other side. "I think I found them."
She stood and wiped her hands on the bottom of her pants, trying to wipe off any of the blood before she even had a chance to look at her hands. Getting her hands dirty like that hadn't exactly been her thing. Isabella started to head back over to Heero and the unconscious Duo when the house gave a creek. "Oh, that doesn't sound good," she muttered and looked around.
"I thought you said you destroyed the system," Heero said.
"Well, I did. But I suppose it could have created a domino effect and started knocking out some of the other, basic grids. That certainly wasn't my intention…"
"Intention or not, we have to get out. Take Duo." Heero walked over and tried to move his comrade onto her back, but she quickly stepped away.
"Woah, no, I can't do that. I have basically no strength, you know that by now. I won't get very far," she insisted, looking over at the exit to the hall, as if to wonder if she would make a run for it
"If you don't get him out, I swear I will shoot you and leave you to die in this house," Heero said, stepping towards her again.
She frowned and perhaps pouted a little. "Everyone is swearing to shoot me, I helped in the end, didn't I?" Reluctantly, she accepted Duo's weight onto her back, putting her hands under his legs while Heero draped his limp arms around her neck. He opened her mouth but she cut him off. "I know, I know. I will get him out. Here's the keys. I don't know the right key."
Heero gave her one last look as she turned her back and slowly started trudging towards the door. Once he felt he could trust her on Duo's escape, he looked at the keys in his hand and ran back down the hallway towards the basement door. That, at least, he knew how to find without a problem.
000
Wufei let out a growl in frustration. His wrists were numb and he seemed to have no way out on his own. He wanted desperately to try to get to the body in the corner and see if there was any way to save the woman's life. But to no avail.
He slumped forward, trying to find his drive to keep fighting, but it was so hard.
He looked back up where he heard a crack. At first, he thought he was hearing things, but then there was another, and another. He looked up at the mirror above him and saw that part of it was starting to bend and crack. It was the part of the mirror that covered the section of the room separating him from Edan.
With each lurch of the house, the spider webbing in the mirror became worse. He barely had time to duck down and cover his head before there was a shattering sound and shards of glass covered him and the ground. He could smell smoke immediately after. He tried to clear the shards off as best he could, but he was quickly distracted by the sparks and flames starting to rain down from above.
Once the integrity of the mirrored section was compromised, it wasn't long before some of the other flooring started to crumble as well. He heard a few small pops and then what sounded like a small explosion. Something electrical above him was completely destroyed.
Another rumble from the house and two chairs fell down into the basement room—one was on wheels, the other was a high backed wooden one that was followed shortly after by a matching chair and an end table. Some of the sparks and flames quickly managed to catch the upholstery on fire.
"Wufei," Heero's voice rang out behind him, and he scrambled to turn without cutting himself on the glass.
Heero had his mouth covered with is arm as the smell of burning wires and circuitry filled the room. The smoke mostly stayed to the room above, but they had enough to deal with considering the rain of sparks and embers. Heero knelt down and started flipping through the keys to try to find the match. It took four tries to find the right one, and that lucky since they had about ten more to try.
Once he was out of his shackles, Wufei tried to stand, but found that his legs refused to move very well on their own. His injuries had caused his muscles and tendons to tighten, and he could barely limp. He turned to try to get past the spray of fire, as there was a sudden lurch downwards.
"The house is sinking again, we have to get out," Heero said, grabbing Wufei and pulling him towards the door.
"We can get her—we can get her out too. She's not far—" Another lurch and it felt like they had dropped a few more feet.
"She's gone Wufei, let it go. You know she'd rather you get out." Of course Heero felt a little bit of remorse somewhere deep down. Edan had been a helpful ally through the entire CSO disaster. He identified with her more than the others could have possibly known. But Heero also knew that she had made her choice, a sacrifice based upon what Isabella said. If Edan was dead, it meant that a great deal many people could likely live.
Wufei's face flashed with anger and he tried to pull away. Even if his own injured state, Heero still overpowered Wufei, who was still bogged down by days of torture and sedatives. He practically dragged Wufei to the steps. They fought each other the entire way to the top of the stairs. Once they were at the top, the smoke was much thicker and the house dropped down again.
Once they were a little bit away from the basement door, Wufei finally started cooperating and walking in the same direction as Heero. The Wing Zero pilot wasn't fooled however. Even if he had resolved to escape, Wufei was unlikely to forgive either Heero or himself anytime soon.
There was another heavy drop, enough to send both of them to the ground. They reached out their arms to catch themselves, coughing as they inhaled the smoke. "We need to get to the second floor, the house has fallen too much for us to leave through the entrance."
Wufei nodded but said nothing as he used the wall to steady himself. Heero took his arm and started moving them at a faster pace.
The great hall was mostly clear of smoke. It's ceiling was so high that the amount that had made its way over went straight up, giving them a chance to breathe. Wufei pulled his arm from Heero as soon as they hit the stairs, using the railing to guide himself up without the other pilot's help. They had barely reached the top when the house screeched and its descent started speeding up. It was no longer the occasional lurch, but a full on collapse.
Not far from where Heero had tossed DeBordaris over the railing, there was a rather large, stained glass window. He could see the light from Red Horse outside, meaning that the window was still above ground. Heero raised his gun and shot out some of the glass. "Can you make it on your own?"
Wufei nodded, stranding straighter. All he had to do was jump out a window. He could barely be more injured than he already was—except, of course, being dead.
"I'll go first, break the glass, and move. Don't wait more than two seconds. Maybe you'll be closer to the ground then." Once they nodded in confirmation, Heero ran forward, using his injured arm to cover his face since he'd rather have one damaged arm than two. Out he went, falling just about ten feet to the ground, luckily.
He rolled out of the way and waited for Wufei. Two seconds past and he didn't come. Heero thought for a moment that the other pilot had been stupid enough to try to go back to the basement. But no. After two more seconds, he was out the window, falling only about two yards. He groaned and slowly laid on his side.
Five minutes was all it took for the house to be almost fully below ground. Five more, and it was sitting at the bottom of a pit. The security doors did not shut over top, so they watched as over the next few hours the house was consumed by a fire. Isabella stood some distance away, Duo's body dumped haphazardly behind her.
Watching the house burn was like watching the pits of Hell rage. It was a fiery inferno for the damned, with Hades, Death, and War doomed to smolder within.
Wufei was the first one to stand and limp away, disappearing somewhere off behind Red Horse.
Heero eventually pulled out his communicator to call up Quatre.
"It's done, isn't it?" The blonde pilot said as soon as he picked up.
"Yeah."
"I could tell. This pain I've had in the back of my skull… it went away a little while ago. I haven't felt this well since before I was taken."
Heero didn't respond, and when he remained silent, Quatre decided to continue speaking.
"Our men have been very efficient in disarming the CSO devices, as well as any explosives left in the Seals. We still have a lot of ground to cover, but as of yet, nothing has gone off, nor is there any sign of power being restored to the CSO weapons or facilities. The two hardest tasks will be disposing of the chemicals properly and getting the mechas moved from the cities affected. I suppose next will be doing check ups on everyone who might have gone under the knife. We'll get through it." Heero could hear Quatre let out a sigh—a content sigh, but a sigh nonetheless. "Anyhow, I'm rambling. If you're ready to go, we will send transport. How many do we need to pick up?"
"Four," Heero replied.
"Only four? Just the four of you?"
Apparently Quatre had expected them to leave with a few war criminals to prosecute. "Just four. We will need transport for Red Horse."
There was silence, and then he seemed to understand. "Oh… I see. We'll have men there within the hour, just hold tight."
Their communication ended and Heero sat, staring down at the flames below. It dawned on him after he looked at the time that it was Halloween.
000
Cleaning up after CSO took almost a year. The Seals and mobile dolls had to be dismantled in place because they were simply too hard to try to move about. All of the company's assets were seized and used to pay out the workers doing the dismantling first, then to pay for medical costs of people who had adverse side effects to the neuro procedures. What was left was divided up for disaster relief (for the residents and families of Rio de Janeiro victims,) and the new Preventers cause.
Many of the rebels were hailed as heroes for standing against CSO. Some chose to continue their work and join the Preventers, Carlino among them, while some decided to do safer work. Some were eager to start back into the Mars Terraforming project.
Noin and Zechs were not amongst those heading off for the red planet. Seven months after Moira's end, Noin gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Sally. She and Zechs worked for the public affairs department of the Preventers, though Zechs was hardly thrilled to be doing paperwork instead of battle tactics.
Une eagerly resumed her position as the Preventers Chief, though this time around, she was certainly in the spotlight more often. All of the governors who had chosen to side with the rebels pledged support to give the Preventers the authority to act worldwide, with less red tape than before. Une, of course, promised that there would be no abuse to this power and agreed to a council made up of representatives from all of the nations. The colonies had yet to be on board with the idea, though a few reluctantly participated.
For once, they hadn't been the ones feeling the destructive powers of war.
Sally was given posthumous ranking and medals since she had been one of the major rebel leaders and a former Preventer.
Relena sat on the World Council, and was elected as the Council Speaker. Her voice carried weight wherever it went, so it was only right that she continue to use. While the Council itself wasn't a governing body, it certainly helped in recreating the unified Earth.
Dorothy had not made it onto the World Council during the first round of elections, but she was avidly working towards getting her own spot. Until her next chance, she accepted an offer to work on the Preventer's financial board. Almost immediately, she caught one of the other members trying to embezzle money. Not only was he out of a job within the hour, but she had his face plastered just about everywhere. The man likely wouldn't have a job with responsibility for some time. Needless to say, after that incident, everyone was suitably terrified of the woman. Her department currently runs the most efficiently.
Quatre was also placed into the limelight, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it. People liked him. They liked his voice, his smile, and his eyes—he had kind eyes. People trusted him. When it came to revealing Moira's death and the fate of CSO, he was the one standing with Preventer Une and reassuring everyone that it would 'be okay.'
But it wouldn't be okay. Not for many people, Duo included. After he awoke some weeks later from his unconsciousness, his comrades could tell he was just not quite… right. Whatever had happened to him had done its damage. CSO had broken him, at least slightly, in the end. While his cheerful nature would occasionally peak through, it seemed that his smile no longer reached his eyes. Sometimes he would become jumpy for no apparent reason, sometimes he would have a conversation with someone who wasn't there. That's what Hilde said, at least, when checking in with Quatre. She had taken him back 'home' to the scrap yard, and he did alright there… for the most part.
Nothing Isabella did could fix Duo. Not that the Preventers let Isabella do much without being constantly monitored. She worked tirelessly to help whoever she could with their implants—at all hours, with little sleep and Preventers looking over her shoulders. She wore anklets that worked as tasers. It was meant to keep her in check, but within a few months, she was already damaged herself. Some of the men assigned to her detail found whatever reason they could to set off the devices. When the abuse was finally discovered, Trowa was asked to personally watch over her.
He may not have liked it, but he supposed he was a good choice. He wouldn't succumb to her smooth talking, but he wouldn't torture her either. He would have rather have returned to the circus with Catherine, but so long as Isabella was helping people, then he would give up his time to make sure she could do her job.
Heero's Preventer title was listed as 'Undisclosed.' He worked as Relena's bodyguard from time to time, but sometimes he disappeared for long periods. He told no one of what he was doing, though Une seemed to know enough to cover for him when need be, and pay for his expenses. He would always be a soldier, and peace didn't sit well with him. The thing with mankind, however, was that there was no such thing as peace. It was an illusion, something people craved and naively embraced. He did what he could to maintain that illusion from behind the scenes.
Heero and Wufei had still not exchanged words since the Adelphie Manor mission. For that matter, no one had really spoken with Wufei. He had turned down any offers from Une to officially join the Preventers again, saying that he only did it before because he enjoyed working with Sally. Quatre was the one person who managed to speak with him, and the two periodically kept in touch, though Quatre did not discuss whatever it was that they were working on.
"He has a lot of anger," Quatre once told to Trowa on one of their visits, "and he's held onto things he should have accepted and let go a long time ago. He thinks he isn't emotional, and that he shouldn't feel things. He needs time to figure out that it's okay to be a human. Not all of us are cut out for 'the perfect soldier' lifestyle."
Even though Quatre tried to claim it was soul searching, they were certainly working on something—he frequently put aside a small budget that was dedicated to Wufei's 'consulting efforts.'
So, in the end, it seemed that humanity was always destined to repeat their mistakes. The best that they could do was try to learn from the last one and try to be better the next time around. If there was a next time (when there was a next time,) they could only hope that it wouldn't be a mad tyrant and his equally-or-more-so-mad daughter hell bent on living out the Book of Revelation.
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Author's Notes: So that is it, that is the end to After Colony: Revelation. Thank you to all of my wonderful readers and reviewers who have stuck with me until the end. I started writing this in 2008, though it took a great deal of editing and some plot changes by the time I finished it in 2015. Pat, I certainly couldn't have done it without your constant support. Thank you for being so dedicated to the story and reviewing at every change!
It was really hard for me to write the ending. I had literally planned out the scene where Edan shot herself and the house was consumed in flames for YEARS, but it didn't make it any easier to do. (I bet you were all hoping Isabella would be the one to go…)
I may post a little epilogue that follows a piece of Wufei's life two years after the end of the CSO downfall. I've had it written for a few months, but I am not known to give characters 'happy' endings. If I post it, it's likely because I may eventually write a short sequel focusing around Wufei and his post-war life.
So, a little bit of extra information for you (whomever you are, still reading this…)
Elisa Thrice's (who is actually almost two years older than Wufei) life changed when her family suffered through a fire, killing her mother and wiping out everything she and her father had left. The fire started when there was an explosion in a workshop that ultimately led to the destruction of the employee housing building next door—this was the little island that Edan and Wufei landed on to wait for pick up after the Sanc battle. So, technically, Edan was born a citizen of Sanc.
She went by the name of Elisa until the incident where she saved another family from a fire during Wufei's Lake Victoria Base attack, where she disobeyed her direct orders. After they finished her final neurochip procedure, they wiped out the personality of Elisa to create "Edan."
Edan (pronounced "Ee-Dan"), is of Gaelic origins meaning "fire." She was designated as the pilot of Red Horse with the code name War, which is the horseman most associated with fire.
And then Edan ultimately died in a fire.
So, fire was very important to this story.
I hope you all enjoyed it if you managed to stick it out this far. If you are a logged in user and review with anything you feel was left unanswered, I will do my best to respond to you.
I may just leave it up to the readers to decide if Wufei gets a happier(ish?) ending or not, and if you would like to see what he ends up doing with the rest of his life.
A big thanks goes to the Anonymous Reviewer Pat, who has really been following the story since I started posting it and has been an avid reviewer. It has really helped me stay motivated to wrap up the story and continue to post. So honestly, Pat, I'm not sure if I would've got through all of this without your consistent words of support! I dedicate After Colony: Revelation to you!
Thank you all for your support! I couldn't have done it without you!
Ever your servant,
A.F