Stratagem

Peeling away the blood encrusted bandage around his leg brought back vivid memories of the war. It wasn't the pain that got to him but the extreme sense of panic as his senses instinctively heightened and the adrenaline immediately began to course through his veins. This sudden chemical imbalance in his brain wasn't enough to throw him from his task though. However out of practice he was, there was and would always be a part of him that would excel in moments of great stress. That wasn't training, that was part of his character.

He popped off the lid from the bottle of rubbing alcohol and doused it all over his healing wound. It was a vile mess of a thing, torn muscle and dried blood intermingled with stitches. But there was no infection due to his careful, studious, and constant changing of his dressing. So as long as it wasn't going to kill him, the look of the wound bothered him very little.

Still, the sting of the alcohol on tender flesh was enough to make his hands tremble slightly as he reached into his backpack and pulled out fresh bandages. He had to be careful not to touch anything in that particular fluorescently lit bathroom. The crudely etched S+M with a primitive heart carved into the stall door along with the innumerable phone numbers scrawled across the walls suggested that this wasn't the most sanitary of places, hence his generosity with the rubbing alcohol.

He kicked the door of his stall open with his bandaged up leg to test its strength. It hurt but was overall rather tolerable. He grabbed his backpack, washed his hands, and left the bathroom and made his way back to the bar where Hope and Duo were waiting for him.

"What are we doing here?" Hope asked as she sipped on her drink.

"And how come I can't order anything?" Duo asked as she pointed at Hope and her drink.

Heero ignored Duo's obvious question and discreetly looked over his shoulders, signalling to Hope to do the same.

"You see those two?" Heero asked.

It took a couple of seconds for Hope to find the guys Heero was talking about. It was barely noticeable. Two men were sitting at a table a few away from the bar. On their otherwise plain black uniforms was the Lucio logo printed on their epaulets.

"They're going to have IDs and biometric identification, you can't just steal their uniforms," Hope said.

"That's not the plan," Heero said.

"Then what is?" Hope asked, starting to sound impatient.

"First, did you do your part?" Heero asked.

"Yes, unmarked van is waiting outside with the list of equipment that you gave me to procure," Hope said.

"Did you have any trouble with the station staff?"

"Nope, just walked in and walked out with it, just like you said," Hope replied. "You were right okay?"

He almost caught himself smirking. Truth be told, Heero did take a certain amount of satisfaction at being right, mostly because Hope had been suspicious of him since they met.

"Alright," Heero said finally. "Here's the plan…"

Several hours earlier

Relena thought nothing of the call from an unknown number that she missed. She was far more focused on discreetly reading up on the elder Dubois sitting across from her. He was going on about the rapid pace of change in the last few years and the perceived ineptitude of the World Government. Evidently, father and son did not share the same political beliefs.

It was a not so thinly veiled attack on Relena and her work but none of this bothered her one bit. She had heard it all before, and expressed much more eloquently.

She supposed that the information she was trying to dig up about her apparent sparring partner for the night should've been firmly ingrained in her head. After all, she had spent most of her childhood in the midst of people like the Dubois, memorizing all of their relations how and they connected back to the Darlians. But who could keep track of these things? The Peerage was an impossible web of families, titles, and lands connected through marriage and their standing within Romefeller.

It didn't matter much these days as Relena had largely distanced herself from the aristocratic social circles of her youth. She lived within the world of politics now. Her friends and acquaintances weren't dukes and margraves, counts or barons. She socialized with bureaucrats, elected officials, and policy wonks. And having only listened to the elder Dubois go on and on ceaselessly, even after the food had arrived, reminded Relena of just how glad she was to have gotten out from that world.

What really confused Relena was why the Dubois were joining them for dinner at all. They weren't close friends, at least not from what she could recall from visits, dinners, and balls past. She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of her mother trying to set her up with Colin after she had explicitly stated her intention to explore her relationship with Heero. But she supposed that this was in her nature, both as an aristocrat and as a mother.

"I'm so sorry about my father's behaviour," Colin leaned over and whispered to Relena, snapping her out of her own train of thoughts. "He forgets himself sometimes. Especially when he's at a table of beautiful ladies."

"Oh, it's quite alright," Relena said with a patient and warm smile, choosing to ignore the compliment. "Parents can be difficult, I can sympathize."

"Really? I find your mother quite agreeable," Colin said with a hint of a smile.

"Well, you would, wouldn't you?" Relena said with a knowing smile.

"Am I so obvious?" Colin replied to her smile with one of his own.

She had to admit there was something easy about talking to Colin. They both naturally fell into that distinct manner of speech whenever they were at a formal event, even if it was the furthest thing from the way they communicated in their daily lives. They were brought up a certain way, with horses and a governess, garden parties, and arcane table manners. Heero knew how to act and did an admirable job of imitating the children of the aristocracy at his brief time spent at St. Gabriel's but Relena could immediately tell that he was faking it. And it made her feel self-conscious and made her embarrassed about the airs that she didn't even realize she was putting on.

"You have not been subtle," Relena replied with a hint of a giggle.

"Does subtlety work with you?" Colin asked. "If that's the case..."

"Lord Hirson, I'll tell you what doesn't work with me. Desperation," Relena said as turned her gaze away towards the rest of the table.

Colin couldn't help but smile. He knew that she was mocking him by referring to him by his courtesy title, a practice that had fallen out of use and was considered ridiculous by young aristocrats of their generation. Furthermore, he knew that she had the far more ludicrous title of princess, and at that point could deploy it relentlessly should he choose to, yet she fearlessly called him out regardless.

"You looked me up," Colin said instead.

"I like to be prepared," Relena replied.

There was a time when the pain in his forearms was enough to make him pass out. That time was about 20 minutes ago. Now Duo felt nothing in his arms whatsoever as the stress of the action of hanging on to the underside of the truck had rendered them completely numb. He thought it was a terrible idea to infiltrate this way and was unnecessarily difficult, however Heero said he had done this on several occasions before and swore by the method. Plus, it meant that he had to tuck his braid into his jacket as to prevent it from getting shredded by road and kicked up gravel.

So there they were, dangling from a truck traveling at 70 kilometres per hour speeding towards Lucio headquarters.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, my arms are going to be so sore tomorrow," Duo hissed.

"Shut up, we're almost there," Heero said.

Heero was exaggerating. It took another 15 minutes before the truck finally came to a stop in front of the checkpoint at the front gate of Lucio. They cleared the first one relatively simply. Presumably, since they couldn't see what was happening, the driver just showed his credentials and signed in his biometric data before the truck was cleared for entrance.

"Get ready," Heero whispered.

The truck came to a stop again. This time, the driver got out of the truck and greeted the two inspectors. Heero tapped Duo on the shoulder signalling that it was time. They released their grip and silently rolled towards the opposite side of the truck from the driver and the inspector. Getting to their knees, they scurried into the darkness at the edge of the courtyard just as the inspectors began to make their way around the truck.

Heero and Duo, made their way to what looked like a maintenance door with a non-electronic lock. Heero pulled out his lock picking kit and began to work on the door while Duo stood watch.

"Jesus Christ, my shoulder and my fingers…" Duo howled.

"You shouldn't have tried to kill me," Heero said.

Duo rubbed his stab wound through his jacket with his opposite hand. Heero worked the lock until it finally released. The door cracked open with a muted creak.

"Nice work," Duo said.

"I know," Heero replied as he put his lock picks away and entered the building.

"Fucking nerd," Duo whispered as he soon followed.

"I'm not making excuses for Romefeller's part in conflicts but politicians are using the organization as a scapegoat to advance their agendas," Henry said as diplomatically as he could.

"A secret society of the world's elite, manipulating world events that ended up costing millions of lives," Colin shot back. "Tell me father, in what way has the legacy of that organization been tarnished in any way but by the consequences of their own actions?"

Even if he was obviously just showing in an earnest yet slightly embarrassing attempt to impress her, Relena appreciated the effort. It was nice to have someone at the table defending her for once. Relena had been unusually quiet through the course of dinner. She didn't feel the need to get into an argument with people share barely knew and whose opinions she didn't care about whatsoever.

Relena could see it on his face that Henry was extremely annoyed and flummoxed by her passivity. Apparently he had been expecting a lively debate but instead got one with his son. No doubt, they have had this argument back and forth countless times already. But Relena felt like she owed the old man nothing, least of all a fight.

"First and foremost, Romefeller was a philanthropic organization that donated to charities and fostered the arts," Henry retorted, his face becoming visibly red. "It was only after the hardliners took over the organization did the mass military begin in earnest."

"That's a revisionist take on history," Colin said as he took a sip of his wine. "The Foundation has had military ambitions since its inception and OZ played an major role not just in the recent wars but of all of the violent escalations leading up to it, including the assassination of Heero Yuy."

Relena's eyes widened when at the utterance of that name. She realized too late her reaction. Both Dorothy and her mother's gaze was transfixed on her at that moment. Luckily, the Dubois didn't take note of her sudden emotional response. Relena tried to put her feelings away as gracefully as she could by taking an extra long sip of her wine, using the opaque purple liquid to hide her expression.

"What about you, young lady?" Henry shifted in his seat. For a moment, Relena thought that the question was directed towards her. "My son is being rather rude, speaking ill of the illustrious House of Catalonia."

"You know that wasn't my intention," Colin said as he quickly turned towards Dorothy.

Relena also turned her attention towards Dorothy, who up until this point, much like Relena had remained largely silent over the course of the meal. Dorothy looked visibly unsettled, a rare sight indeed. But she quickly recovered, hardened her expression, sharpened her gaze, and straightened her posture.

"It's alright, Colin," Dorothy said calmly. "I believe in the ideals and virtues of a meritocracy. As did my father and my grandfather before me. They were strong men, of strong minds, and stubborn wills. We should judge them on their actions and the results thereof. And in that respect, they were failures. In the end OZ became nothing more than a pawn in the game of tyrants. Romefeller, instead of bettering the condition of the world, drove it into ruin. And yes of right now, the Vice Foreign Minister and the current government seem to be much better keepers of the peace than my grandfather ever was."

Everyone, including Relena, stared at Dorothy. They had been rendered speechless. Satisfied with their collective shock and awe, Dorothy relaxed and smiled.

"So," she said. "Shall we order dessert?"

After moving through the maintenance area undetected, Heero and Duo emerged into Lucio Internationale's first floor atrium that also served open office area and a visitor's food court. The space was large, empty, and perfectly quiet. Each one of their footsteps sent muted echoes bouncing up and down the walls and ceiling of the octagon glass and marble construction.

Duo let out an audible whistle as he stared up at the third and fourth floor windows enclosed the atrium's upper walls.

"Shut up," Heero said as he hurried towards one of the floor hallway entrances that opened up to the space.

On the wall, he found a communications panel and activated it. The screen lit up with a cold blue tone and showed a general map designating where they were on relation to a 3 dimensional map of the complex. Heero, placed a small magnetic box on the glass panel and a terminal immediately opened up on top of the map. A sequence of pre-written code began to run.

"Hey," Heero said as he turned to Duo, allowing the script to do its work.

"Calm down, no one's here, clearly" Duo said a she opened his arms and gestured to the giant empty space in front of them.

"No, not that," Heero said sternly. "Before we regain communications with Hope, I just want to say… I've never doubted your skill or your resolve and I don't feel the need to remind you of it here. Hope won't be prepared for everything that can potentially happen but I know that you can."

Duo stared at Heero blankly for a moment before his expression grew determined.

"Yeah… I got it," Duo said softly. "Let's just get this done."

The little magnetic box began to flash green as the terminal window on the wall mounted display disappeared. Heero tapped the screen to bring up the newly installed program.

"This is Ivory and Onyx, reporting in, do you copy?" Heero said.

There was a brief pause.

"This is Amber, I copy," Hope's voice came through their earpieces.

"Are we good?" Heero asked.

"Just a second… and… yes, we're good," Hope said. "Check your tablets. You'll have an updated version of the map of the compound plus live tracking of janitorial and maintenance staff. Jeez, Lucio keeps their employees on a short leash."

"Only some of them I suspect," Heero commented.

"Yeah, we'll still have to be on the lookout out for any enterprising suits burning the midnight oil," Duo added.

"Can you access to mainframe?" Heero asked.

"No," Hope replied. "This terminal only has public level access."

"Okay, then we'll proceed with the mission," Heero said. "Onyx will head up into the executive offices, I'm going towards the server farm."

"Okay, I'll work on getting access to the building's security cameras in the meantime," Hope said.

Relena relished the solitude. She submerged herself into the quietness of the moment and took the time to try and release some of the tension she had let build up in her upper back and neck. Relena ran her fingers along her trapezius and let out a soft sigh as she stared at herself in the mirror. She wished it was Heero doing that for her.

The muffled sounds of conversations and waiters scurrying around could still be heard from the ladies restroom but it was quiet enough that she could retreat within herself for just a moment. The dim lighting that somehow simulated candle light allowed her to warm herself up after spending the better part of an hour in a half in a rather rigorously air conditioned space.

It had been a long day and an even longer night. She thought that her mother just wanted to see her, not ambush her with a potential suitor. But such was her way and she felt a little dumb to think that her mother would just give up so easily.

And just as she was beginning to relax, the door cracked open and she walked in.

"It's been a tiring day," Relena said still rubbing her neck. "Don't test me."

"It wasn't my idea," Dorothy said softly, almost sounding remorseful.

"No, it didn't really seem like your style," Relena said. "I'd say if it was your idea, we would be in a far more public setting."

"That way you couldn't just slip away to the bathroom," Dorothy said with a hint of a smirk.

"Thank you for defending me out there," Relena said as she finally turned around to face Dorothy.

"I wasn't," Dorothy said. "I mean I wasn't just defending you. I believe in peace, despite what you may think."

"You've seen first hand the desperation of war," Relena commented. "You know how bad it can get."

"Those men are clueless," Dorothy said with a hint of disdain in her voice.

"Colin's heart's in the right place," Relena said.

"You mean because he likes you?" Dorothy said as her signature mischievous smile reappeared.

"No, that's not what I mean," Relena said slowly, trying to mitigate her blush. "And you know it."

"Still, he's cute, isn't he?" Dorothy teased.

"Plenty of guys are cute," Relena tried to say sternly. "Doesn't mean we have to date them."

"Speak for yourself lady, not all of us are just waiting around for a Gundam pilot to come along," Dorothy said.

"Oh really?" Relena saw her moment. "How's Quatre?"

"I wouldn't know," Dorothy said with a shrug, trying to sound disinterested.

"Mhmm, you know I go to school with his sister, if you want me to put in a good word for you", Relena said with a devious smile.

"Please, I don't need help," Dorothy said sounding rather indignant.

"That implies there's something to help with," Relena pressed.

"You think you're so clever," Dorothy said as she forced a smile.

"How'd's it feel?" Relena asked as she stuck out her tongue.

There was a brief pause followed by a burst of laughter that was desperately needed.

"I've been thinking about it," Relena said as she recomposed herself.

"What?" Dorothy asked.

"Chief of Staff," Relena answered. "I do think I need one."

"I'm glad to hear it, I think it's the right decision," Dorothy said.

"I have conditions," Relena said.

"Of course, name them," Dorothy said in a conciliatory manner.

"If it comes down to you versus my girls, I will choose my girls, do you understand?" Relena said in a rather matronly tone. "I expect that you will treat them well."

"Of course," Dorothy said.

"Second, Cindy still reports me directly," Relena continued.

"That's fine by me," Dorothy said.

"And finally, my private life is my private life, it is off limits." Relena said emphatically. "This, this can't happen again."

Dorothy paused for moment. Her hesitation was immediate and obvious. Relena expected this, it's what she was testing for, to see if Dorothy was truly sincere. "Fine, but I have conditions of my own."

"Really?" Relena asked skeptically.

"Yes, Relena, you may not believe me but I intend to do this job well and that means I need to be able to be honest with you," Dorothy said.

"I welcome it," Relena said as she folded her arms.

"No, you say that, but you won't," Dorothy said. "There will be disagreements and you, of course, can make choices I don't agree with but I need to be able to voice them plainly. While I didn't plan this night and I know that you and I are going to disagree about Heero frequently."

"Dorothy, despite everything that has happened… I have always appreciated your opinions."

The elevator door slid open with a small chime signalling his arrival at the top floor of the building. Luckily, no one was there to greet him. Hope was in his ear the whole time, guiding him around the nighttime maintenance staff, finding him alternate routes around the occasional employee pulling an all-nighter, and blacking out cameras for a few seconds at a time so that the firm would have no photographic evidence of the intruders even if they would undoubtedly find out about the intrusion later.

Duo stepped out of the elevator into a large circular room with light hardwood flooring illuminated by an array of pot lights that surrounded a massive oval skylight. To his left was the receptionist desk, and to his right was a set of black leather couches. In front of him, just beyond reception, was a large hallway and curved slightly beyond his vision to either side.

"Alright, now try to find the switches," Hope said through his ear piece.

"Yeah, yeah," Duo replied.

"Quiet! I don't have access to the cameras on this floor, there might still be people around," Hope shouted, causing the sound in his ear piece to crack.

"Alright, Jesus!" Duo replied with a whisper as he rubbed his ear.

Duo made his way down the hallway that seemed to circle around the reception area and the elevator, lined on the outside by private executive offices. He noticed a little inconspicuous door built into the wood panelling of the inner wall and forced it open.

"Bingo!" Duo said as he saw the racks of routers and switches and the accompanying blinking lights that generated the private network for this floor.

"Great! Now place the key in any of the ports," Hope said.

"I know how to do this," Duo said.

"Just trying to be helpful," Hope said teasingly.

Duo pulled the electronic key from the inner pocket of his coat and found an empty port on a switch and pressed it in. Immediately, the end of the black device began to flash green as it established a data link with the rest of the buildings wireless network, thus giving Hope access.

"Awesome! I'm in, downloading now," Hope said.

"Great, how long until complete?" Duo asked.

"Ummm… two hours," Hope answered.

"Seriously?!" Duo shouted.

"Keep it down!" Hope yelled back at him.

"How's Heero doing?" Duo asked.

"He's already in the server room," Hope said.

"Typical," Duo remarked.

He he leaned against the wall beside the little server closet. He was officially bored. He pulled out his phone but then thought better of turning it on. Two hours might as well be an eternity.

"So, what are you doing after this?" Duo asked.

There was a brief pause. "Are you asking me out?"

When Heero suggested getting nondescript black jackets for the operation, Duo thought it was an insane idea. In his mind, it was way too hot for that. Now, finding himself standing within an endless maze of black monoliths with a blue glow emanating from the floor and the persistent hum of a powerful and omnipresent industrial air conditioner, Heero knew that he had been right all along.

He had just finished placing the last key on the last row of servers before confirming with Hope that the data link should be operational. After she confirmed, he quickly made his way out of the frigid room and out of the basement. He headed towards the dockyard and after evading the guards at the checkpoint between the office complex and the dockyard, he found himself in a large enclosed facility filled with a couple of dozen ships of varying sizes.

Heero took a moment to reorient himself. The space was larger than he expected from the downloaded plans he had memorized. His task was simple, even if it may take him a little more time than he had originally anticipated. There were still some workers in the dockyard but none of them were guards so it was easy enough for him to avoid detection. He moved from ship to ship and trying to find the tanker that they saw come in earlier.

It didn't take long for Heero to find it. The tanker was tucked away behind a few temporary walls that shielded the activities within from prying eyes.

He scaled the walls and made his way onto the top platform just as they were unloading the mobile suits. As he had expected. It wasn't the Serpents that froze him in his tracks. Although there were far more of them than he anticipated. It was the Mercurius. Newly reborn, like a long dead ghost that had come back to haunt him.

Immediately, he felt adrenaline course through his veins as his mind began to assess the situation. It had been so long since he had been in a high stress situation yet somehow he felt at home. This was where he belonged, this is where he thrived.

He made his way down a small ladder and found a little hiding spot within the shadows. He counted the number of mobile suits and looked around for fuel and ammunition. There didn't seem to be any which led him to believe that this was just a temporary stop on the way to wherever they were ultimately going.

Heero considered his options. He could try and destroy all of the mobile suits in the dockyard and set the Barton Foundation back months, although at great political and strategic cost to the wider mission of the Preventers and the World Government. He could just let them leave and trust that there is valuable information in the servers that would help them track the mobile suits later.

The faintest voice from across the waters stole his attention from his tactical considerations. It was familiar, too familiar.

He listened.

"Load them back up onto the ship and send them back. All except the Mercurius."

Heero pressed himself against the floor and crawled to the edge of the shadows to get a better look. It couldn't be. But that voice was unmistakable.

"Alpha White…"

And as if the man heard Heero's whispers from across the waters and over the sounds of workers and heavy machinery, his attention was immediately broken.

He was a ghost from Heero's past. A past that he thought was long dead, buried in the ruins of his memories. That which he foolishly thought he was capable of escaping. But the man's flaming red hair and matching eyes, that smile that invoked pure chaos and madness, was undeniable.

"What's wrong sir?" One of the men beside him asked.

He didn't immediately answer. "Nothing. Thought I felt something."

"Here," Colin said as he placed his dinner jacket over Relena's bare shoulders.

The snow had begun to fall just as Relena, Dorothy, Mareen, and the Dubois were leaving the restaurant. Standing outside, waiting for their respective limousines, Relena had deliberately placed some distance between herself and the rest of them, silently signalling her displeasure by the deceit of the night.

Colin finally summoned the courage to approach Relena privately after spending a bit of time gauging her silent fury from a distance.

She looked up at him, tugged the lapel of the jacket over her shoulders and offered him a polite smile.

"Thank you," Relena said.

"Phew, thought you may be mad or something," Colin said with a nervous chuckle.

"Mustn't make a scene in front of the cameras," Relena said as she subtly gestured towards the darkness.

He had almost forgot, but of course, the paparazzi were still there watching her, like ever present vultures, picking away at her personal details like scraps of meat for sustenance. No doubt the mere acceptance of his jacket will bring a fresh round of speculation and rumours.

"That wasn't my intention," Colin said as he took a step forward and placed his hands in his pockets.

"In my experience, men like you are rather efficient with your intentions," Relena said.

"If you're implying what I think you're implying, know that I had nothing to do with tonight, you're mother invited us, it would have been rude to refuse," Colin said.

"Oh I don't blame you," Relena said. "I just don't want to disappoint you."

"How could you be disappointing?" Colin asked.

"By being unavailable," Relena said.

"Well, so the rumours are true," Colin said as he shrugged and looked down at his shoes. "The motorcycle guy?"

"I can't really talk about it," Relena said.

"You don't have to tell me, but you'll eventually have to explain it to them," Colin said as he pointed in the direction of the hidden men with cameras. "Are you up for that? Is he?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Relena answered.

Colin nodded. "Well, I wish you the best of luck. And you can't blame me for trying. I can't be the only man who wants you."

"I certainly don't," Relena said politely.

"He's a lucky man."

Colin and Relena nodded to each other one last time as the Dubois' limousine pulled up. He stared at her a little longer than was appropriate, transfixed by the way the light from the restaurant caught her hair and made her radiate.

Mareen came up to her just as Colin got into the car.

"Well, that could've gone better," Mareen said.

Relena turned to face her mother. "How dare you."

"Oh come now, don't be so dramatic," Mareen said dismissively.

"I thought I was clear," Relena said sternly.

"You were. I'm just showing you another option," Mareen said. "Another life."

Heero waited in the shadows as the man with the red hair made his rounds, inspecting the Mercurious along with the rest of the cargo. The man had grown. His cheeks had slimmed down, his eyes had sharpened, the once frizzy hair of a troublemaker from the slums of an L1 colony were now slicked back and made him look neat and proper, almost tame, in a way that almost could mask his natural psychopathy. Heero wondered for a brief second if it was really him, the one he knew only by the name Alpha White.

After what felt like half an hour, the voices of discussion between the engineers, dock workers, and Alpha White, finally seemed to abate. Heero made his way out of the shadows and towards the ship where the Serpents had been loaded. He walked along the empty platforms until he reached the loading bay of the ship. Peeking inside, he could see at least five Serpents lined up neatly, ready to be shipped out.

Heero decided on that moment that those mobile suits could not leave. These were illegal creations in the first place, and the World Government did not have the military strength to combat even a handful of fully operational Serpents. He knew, that he had to sink the ship along with every mobile suit aboard.

Just as he boarded the ship through the loading bay, the bright incandescent lights turned off, the door behind him closed, and red emergency lights turned on.

"I knew it was you, even after all these years, I can still feel your presence, Alpha Black."

A familiar voice came through the ship's tinny intercom.

"Or should I say Heero Yuy."

Heero instinctively darted towards the shadows, fully aware of the fact that he was trapped and that hiding was futile.

"You've been busy, but then again, so have I. We should really catch up."

Heero waited for the sound of footsteps, but none came. He thought that Alpha White would send men to arrest or kill him.

"Look at us, two troublemakers dear old J picked up off of the streets, now both high speed operators, he would've been so proud."

Just then, instead of the sound of footsteps, he felt and heard the displacement of water. It tipped the ship forward, he almost slipped.

"But alas, unlike you, I didn't get to pilot a Gundam, become a hero, and get the princess. I had to make ends meet by other means."

Heero, realizing what was happening, pulled out his phone and frantically ran towards one of the Serpents. As the ship slowly but violently rocked back and forth, he popped open one of the side hatches underneath the arm of the mobile suit, yanked out the wire and connected it to his phone. He ran the decryption software and after a few moments the hatch of the suit opened.

"Fighting for OZ for a few months here, fighting for the White Fang for another few months there. Shame we never ran into each other."

The door of the mobile suit snapped shut as Heero turned the power on. At the boot screen, Heero whipped out the fold-out keyboard on the left side and forced the machine into the BIOs and switched to the command line based Operating System for maintenance, diagnostics, and repair purposes. He didn't have to time learn the new graphical operating system that they had loaded onto this machine. Neither the Wing nor the Wing Zero even had one.

"Never with a special mobile suit or anything. Doctor J didn't write me a recommendation letter when I was released from his tutelage. As you can imagine it took me a little bit of time before I could make a name for myself."

Suddenly, everything went silent. The water calmed down and the ship settled down. Not a moment later, two alerts went off above Heero on the top panel. The EM and heat sensors detected a hug spike right above him. It was the Mercurius' beam gun.

"But look at me now, Heero Yuy." His voice darkened. "Look at me now…"

Heero frantically did a system wide search for the atmospheric re-entry protocol. It was all he could think of at that moment. He enabled it just as the blinding white beam tore through the hull and punched a hole into the suit beside his, causing it to erupt and throw shrapnel everywhere. A few more arrived a few moments later with equal fury.

The ship cracked open like a pea pod the Mercurius continued to unload its beam gun. The ship split along its length, until finally, the fuel tank erupted into a violent ball of flame. The force of the explosion was so violent it tore the roof off of the dockyard as gas and debris pushed its way into the outside air.

Alpha White watched, satisfied at the carnage he had just inflicted. He felt powerful. He felt fulfilled. But just as he was about to jump out of his mobile suit to inspect the damage up close, a small flash of red emerged from wreckage of the ship followed by a violent spray of bullets, like a chainsaw, that cut across the chest section of the Mercurius. Several alarms went off, declaring that he was under fire. He moved his suit not a little.

"That's more like it…" He whispered underneath his breath.

Heero knew that he couldn't get through the frontal armor of the Mercurius. But he was hoping that the wild young man from his youth would be impetuous enough to be drawn into a close range fight in the wreckage of the ship where neither suit was particularly maneuverable and more importantly, the planet defensors of the Mercurius would be of little use.

No such luck.

Heero continuously fired the gatling gun towards the still Mercurius while occasionally switching to the beam cannon. The Mercurius returned fire but not with any sense of urgency. Still, Heero took great care to avoid taking any damage. He had just barely survived the explosion of the ship and the adjacent suit due to the heat resistance protocol. Now that was spent and he already had received quite a bit of armor damage from shrapnel. He couldn't take on the Mercurius head on and he knew that.

"Why do you hide?" Alpha White said through the comms channel as well as through the external speakers of the Mercurius. "Come out and face me like a man."

He fired a rapid burst of shots towards Heero's Serpent, tearing away what remained of the hull of the ship. As soon as he was visible, Heero deployed the missiles from the Serpent's shoulders. Alpha White retreated into the open air and deployed the planet defensors block the attack.

"That's more like it! Show me that animal aggression from before! Show me that you were worthy to pilot the Wing Zero!" Alpha White said through the speakers.

As the smoke cleared he looked at Heero's previous location and found that he wasn't there. But now that he wasn't hiding amongst the flaming wreckage of the ship, he could at least use the thermal scanners to find him. As soon as he detected Heero on the ground, he felt an intense storm of bullets crash against the force field. The gatling gun was no use against it. But even so it did not let up. He merely continued to fire.

"That's it, that's it, show me what you're made of! Show me why Doctor J chose you over me!"

The Mercurius returned fire with its beam gun, but it neither had the fire rate nor the sheer force of the double gating guns of the Serpent.

"Enough of this!"

Frustrated, Alpha White cast aside the beam gun and powered up the beam sword of the crash shield and charged towards the Serpent. The planet defensor force field protected him the whole way as he closed the distance rapidly. With one smooth strike, the beam sword cut through the right gatling gun, the arm, and into the torso of the Serpent. But when Alpha White inspected the cockpit. He found that the hatch was already open. He frantically looked at his monitors, hoping to find Heero on them somewhere.

Finally, he spotted him, hanging off of the skirt of the Serpent. He was waiting to be discovered. Something didn't feel right about that. Heero didn't make mistakes like that. He turned towards his infrared monitor to see that there was a large heat signature building from the core of the Serpent, and that the remaining missiles in the shoulders had been armed.

Heero jumped a split second before the detonation. As his mobile suit exploded, a violent wave expanded outward from the centre and threw large chunks of metal in every direction. He curled up into a ball to minimize his surface area as a thousand little shards rained down upon him, racing him towards the water below. Not a second later, the missiles in the shoulder launchers added a second wave of destruction just as Heero hit the surface of the water.

Because his proximity, Alpha White couldn't use the Mercurius' planet defensors to form a viable force field. His suit took the blast of the Serpent's destruction at point blank, knocking out his cameras and momentarily draining the suit of its power. It fell backwards as the electromagnetic force of the beam sword dissipated along with its power supply, leaving the behemoth in an unstable stance.

Shrapnel pierced the surface of the water with vicious speed only to be slowed down by the the fluid's natural friction. When Heero felt he was deep enough in the water that no more small bits of debris could effectively pierce him like a bullet he opened his eyes and turned around. He witnessed the blinding light of the exploding missiles and was knocked out by the ensuing violent concussive force.