"Mei-Lin is a very brave individual," Da Cao said to Zhang Li. "She walked in there herself, knowing this needed to be done."
"I'm sure she tried to put something to come to them later. Maybe mail in the future to their addresses or something, but it won't change things. You are right though, she is brave. I had doubts for so long, but she's a wonderful choice for me," Zhang Li stated. "I wonder where she is going to come out?"
"Could be a year. Could be five years. Could be ten years," Da Cao said. "She might come out barely being able to talk."
"Fallen Embers have perfected this," Zhang Li growled at him. "Like I told her, it was just a little warning. We are a group of the smartest people in the world."
"We thought we had one-time pregnancy technology mastered, Zhang Li, and it didn't work for women from the colonies," Da Cao reminded him. "It is something Lady Une had always gotten right. Never overestimate yourself and never underestimate your enemy."
"Hm.
"Andrew Shuttle, how is Trowa Barton doing?"
"Yes, Da Cao?" Andrew asked. "Trowa Barton has gone into sync."
Da Cao scratched his neck. "Good. Let's hold him right there. Give him some time to wake up. Standard hospital room. On the walls, add the paintings. The other pilots might mention it before his mind regresses where he is."
"Relena Dorlain," Andrew said toward Da Cao. "I agreed to go with this RTL thing for a reason, Da Cao."
"Yes, I know, she is a special deal," Da Cao said toward him. "If she is healthy enough, it's only fair. Take her back as far as you wish."
Andrew smiled as he switched places with Relena's controller. "I am not pushing far. The lightest of touches. I want her to sparkle like she did back at Saint Gabriel's. Those days when we went to school. Before all the wars. Especially before Heero Yuy."
"Just watch all her waves. This is the brain. One mess up and she won't even speak, let alone smile. If it does not let go, do not force it. It has to be persuaded, it can't be forced," Da Cao warned him. "Also, going too young will lead to no end in problems."
"Yes, Sir," Andrew insisted.
The other members were starting to work on the other pilots.
"Gentle," Da Cao warned all of them. "The revenge is taken care of, no matter when they figure it out. The mind is fragile. Treat each one carefully. If you feel that you can't handle it, ask for help."
After this, they could close this simple matter of the gundam pilots, and move on.
"Revenge of the Lost is our enemy," one of his members uttered, staring at the keys. "Ultimately, we helped our enemy get their goal."
"Up." Da Cao made the member stand up and he sat down to control the panel. No one could get emotional about this.
"They killed Jewel. Revenge of the Lost killed Jewel with fake news! And yet, that woman just sits there, almost mindless." They looked back toward Crystalia. "So many Fallen Embers are gone now because of her. Our brilliance was used for . . ." She seethed. "Why? It's a waste. I feel like we did their dirty work," she said. "They are all dead, and we finished it for them past their graves. It's like seeing someone who bullied you everyday as a child, and then showing up with a stick for them to use."
"Revenge of the Lost didn't want this."
"They wanted revenge. This works a hell of a lot better than the father thing!" She crossed her arms. "This simple action should have just been used."
"No. This action couldn't have been taken by Revenge of the Lost. They didn't know about it," Da Cao said to her.
"If they do break out, they are going to be angry," Jade reminded him. "We'll all be dead."
No, that wasn't a problem. "If they do break out somehow, though I don't believe they will, it could destroy an entire colony," he said, entertaining her idea. "They wouldn't risk an entire colony for themselves. If somehow they actually did risk that, then they won't have the memories to want to care this time around. Zhang Li, please remove her," Da Cao ordered as he watched the waves. Jade was Phyllis, AKA Jewel's best friend. Some of Fallen Embers was there for retaliation against the pilots. They worked the best to get them in the fold, but that wasn't really their concern at all.
Still, that initial fallout did harm some of the group. Jade was too emotional. Emotions didn't belong in this science. Emotion would lose a mind. This was delicate. This work was forever.
The zero system was no toy, and everyone there had been working on understanding it ever since they made the Zhang colony dark. Being a genius was no excuse to just assume they would understand the mechanics. For so long they stayed in the remains of what others assumed were an abandoned colony. While the pilots were chased by RTL, chased after RTL, or just became part of RTL. They had waited and studied ever more the system Revenge of the Lost had treated like just a toy.
Fallen Embers took the seemingly meaningless controls, and translated them from the women's wild thinking. It was another reason to join Revenge of the Lost, so they could learn the lingo to understand the mechanical language of the zero system.
The 12PIL button stood for 12-piece puzzle if lucky. Those were the most sensitive controls, a very fine touch and precise positioning needed. They made the controls finer towards the end of their new number scale since even a tenth of an inch was worth two inches of area towards the middle. It took away knowledge, and deep-set skills.
DNMWTO was Do Not Move Will Treat Often. This area was less sensitive than the other area affected by it, and was not permanent. It was what RTL referred to as training wheels. The higher the setting, the safer it had been for the person under it. No long-term effects, just a short burst of short-term loyalty. Used often before their missions, or when they were individually getting scared. However, it was preset to a 'safe place'. Messing with it would result in different visions and hallucinations, usually using the data it has retrieved mixed with emotions that showed different futures.
FBM was flick by the minute. This setting could also adjust the waves, it was an inner automatic button that turned on every minute to five minutes. With this, even the extremity of 12PIL could be downgraded into the quiet of training wheels. FBM did affect memory though, it wasn't a savior.
Once they knew the ridiculous concepts RTL used, they were able to take it apart, reorganize it, and were able to target effectively. The mind was now less of a mystery than ever with their research. The true test to their system was now underway to see if they could use it to their own advantage now.
"It's all looking great, Boss," Finn Phillip said. "Duo is super well." Da Cao went over by him to double check. "I am doing what you wanted."
"My boy knows better," Katrina Phillip said as she controlled Hilde. "He knows that Gin likes him for some reason, so this will be fine. Also, he doesn't want Gin to break another finger."
"Will you leave him alone? Damn you, woman." Finn gestured to Da Cao. "Look at all the measurements. There are no automatic pressers inserted inside."
"I'll double check," Brigdo Rain said to Da Cao.
"Everything is even," Toledo Bridges said from next to Finn. "I watched him. He is an honorary member, so I knew better."
Brigdo still checked it anyway.
"I can handle it again," Jade Lambert said as she came over closer to Da Cao. "I will take Quatre Raberba Winner. He ruined a lot less lives, I can handle him."
"Van Tassle, do you mind switching with Jade?" Da Cao asked Lucinda.
"No problem, Sir." Lucinda moved with a smile toward Heero Yuy. "I've got this. What if they eventually do come after us?" Van Tassle did ask Da Cao. "I know I sound like Jade, and I know it should be impossible. If they do get freed, then what?"
"It's not war. We are making mankind better and more efficient. Even the leaders of war did not actually die except Treize Kushrenada. Well, I suppose there were a few more, but rules are just different. They shouldn't care enough. If anything, maybe they will send one of us to a hospital? They were just kids, fighting for freedom. That's all they'll know. They'll pick up the pieces wherever they fell and make a new life if they escape," Da Cao encouraged them bravely. "No worries."
"What about the families?" Van Tassle asked again. "Their families."
"I already told you, they won't know to look and they won't care. We studied them carefully with the women, hardly any of them saw them. Only Heero Yuy did, and that seemed more out of duty," Da Cao said.
"He visited them a lot," Van Tassle pointed out. "You can't hide that, Da Cao. He actually loved his children."
"Okay, fine. Heero Yuy might be a small problem." She did notice that uncertainty, damn. "The others shouldn't be a problem. Just, take him back a tad further than you thought. Everyone is somewhere in AC 195. Let's keep it early, before the Sank Kingdom. If he'd rather kill his girlfriend, then he won't care what happened to her, and won't investigate."
"That makes sense," she agreed. "Not too early, that's dangerous. Let's try this simulation." She started to run her own tests to check the validity. "I forgot to mention that Quatre was greatly influenced by the death of what he thought was his family too. Dorothy was even found with an engagement ring on her person, as well as a little gift from him to their child," Van Tassle said again.
"We are turning back the clock. We are essentially reversing everything for them. Don't worry about such minor things," Da Cao insisted. "They will never hassle you again."
"Early is tough," Andrew agreed with her. "I just can't get my Relena's mind to let go." He glared over at Crystalia. "I can't force her in another way. She'll be too young."
"Fifteen isn't young?" Jade called him out.
"It's just in the mind, not the body, it's different," Andrew said to her. "Besides, she will grow into a new presence. A different presence than before. If I could even just get it two days before she turned 15. Heero Yuy invaded her life, and everything bad happened after that."
"Heero Yuy didn't have anything to do with her father's death," Finn Phillip stated. "She's going to be changed no matter what."
"Experience and extra simulation time," Andrew insisted. "I can't bend her anymore."
"All of them are like that," Elmer Pines pointed out. "Zechs is the same way, they won't go past a certain point without messing around in other areas. It's like somehow . . . some part of them knows. The brain is still a mystery."
"Compromise how you must," Da Cao stated. "Find an instant, a moment of time, where they feel surreal. Time of death. Time of tragedy. Find something. Let them rest there, get everything on there, and then sever. The more you mess with the mend, the worse the cut. This is our first time using it on live people, we must be delicate. Revenge of the Lost does not have good research on this."
"Dorothy Catalonia's brain is all befuddled," Clarice Ives insisted. "She had several pressure points on her in different areas for short-term relief. She will eventually remember. Should we wait before we do this? It won't be so balanced if we don't."
"Hilde Schbeiker is the same way," Katrina Phillip said. "Things are blocking the path. It must have been experience in RTL itself. That place was filled with loons."
"Same thing for Noin," Matt Gonzales chimed in.
"And for Middie Une," Brian Damon said. "These have all been influenced by their time in RTL."
"Input the data that we have on them, but only up to part of AC 195," Da Cao instructed. "Then, sever."
"This will be a tougher sever," Brian warned him. "It's data, but it's not the true memories. We've never experimented with this before."
"We are trying many things for the first time. It's the beginning of a new chapter in the age of man," Da Cao stated. "Do it. We don't need any RTL in their heads anymore."
They worked for hours, switching on and off, to adjust everything for the pilots and women. Removing deep set skills learned after 15. Losing memories after 15. Losing emotional connections after 15. Some adjustment here and there, especially for Relena. It would be better if she stayed out of the way, and Andrew wanted her to be just a sparkling jewel for himself. No need for her.
She would just get in their way anyhow, not seeing the benefits to what they were doing. So much progress was lost to stupid things like wars between people just because of where they lived. Ridiculous. With Fallen Embers in charge but under wraps, the world would progress in peace. So many things would be discovered, grants given that would have been denied, and their world?
Their world would be absolutely beautiful thanks to the zero system.
"Sever." Andrew was the first to say it. "Relena Dorlain is done." He smiled. "She's like a nice little cupcake hiding in an oven."
"Sever," Zhang Li announced next. "Hard sever for Mei-Lin. The results will be as best they can be."
Each one by one, cut them off and finished up. Twelve people were now in front of them. Most of them in the gundams, while some in free roam now just lied down. Like they accepted it all.
The chapter on the pilots would close, as seemingly, the losers. Not much of a way to escape people like them.
But, they were losers who lived, until they lost interest in living.
While some interesting and brilliant futures? Would be awaiting Fallen Embers. If only Lady Une could get over the 'equality and peace', she could have seen what part of their group had made. But?
It's not like they would seriously need her either anymore.
Lady Une's Home
"Mariemaia?" Lady Une called to her daughter as she played a game on her bed. "Dinner time's in an hour. Would you like chicken or vegetarian?"
"Vegatarian lasagna?" Mariemaia looked back at her pleasantly. "Please?"
Hm. "That lasagna was going to be for the weekend."
"We could have something else this weekend? Lasagna sounds really good, Lady." She gave a cheerful smile again.
"Oh fine. We'll have lasagna." Lady Une closed the door and headed to the kitchen. It would probably be a better idea, she wouldn't be as rushed in her meeting she had to attend soon. She opened the freezer for a box of lasagna, and brought it out as she preheated her oven. There were fancier gadgets now that were starting to cook foods much faster, but she still preferred the more simple things of her youth for cooking.
The years taking care of Mariemaia had been good for both of them. Having someone that reminded her of a piece of Treize, while being someone completely new, felt good to her. Mariemaia had taken to calling her Lady, like Treize, and treated her more like a mother.
As the lasagna defrosted, she placed it in the oven. She set an automatic timer for when it should stop cooking, and headed toward her room for her conference.
Her virtual prompter had her face on it at first until more people joined into the conference.
"Good morning, Lady Une." Each one greeted her as they logged in.
Most of them were responsive and on task, yet there were still some that showed signs of trouble. Like, Da Cao.
"Good morning. Lady Une." He said Lady Une a little later. Didn't seem as enthused to see her. She felt this from more than him. A good quarter of her group seemed to be more aloof lately.
"I'm glad to see all the Fallen Embers have made it," Lady Une said. "Except a few. Where is Phyllis Banard? Does anyone know? She has not been seen for several meetings now."
"I have no idea," Andrew Shuttle said. "Da Cao, have you seen Phyllis?"
"No, I haven't," he stated.
Hmm. "Her family hasn't said anything about her." She was still missing. It seemed that a few more were also still missing. Why were her meetings getting less receptive?
"I really have some stuff to do," Zhang Li insisted to her. "Could we please speed this meeting up?"
"Speed it up? Are you seriously addressing me that way?" What a fool! "I am Lady Une, leader of Fallen Embers! How dare you speak to me that way."
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to be as rude," Zhang Li mentioned. "A friend of mine is sick, but it was no excuse to speak out like that."
"A sick friend?" Oh. "I'm sorry, Li. Please, excuse yourself when needed." She didn't want to grow cold and let someone suffer for a meeting. "How are your categories doing?"
Several gave green checkmarks. From fashion to celebrity, her Fallen Embers were everything and doing their duties. Shortly after Mariemaia came to live with her, Lady Une could see how this sensitive feeling of peace from wars could be rocked. She wanted to help preserve it, so that Mariemaia would never have to feel involved in war again.
Life was peace, and the people in the highest places helped control that peace. From politics to the popular celebrities, their charisma and words and inventions? It brought communication and progression of mankind.
Her Fallen Embers, she had great confidence in her group. It was not advertised, only scouted for. There were even honorary positions for those that were genius' in different ways besides intelligence. They all maintained the balance through many angles of each other, making sure the world stayed balanced. If something had happened though, a force unseen like Mariemaia before?
Then, they would also resolve it. Her Fallen Embers were named so for their pure fire to go on. Even at the end, when most fires had died out, her fallen embers would still be lit red. Still able to set fire again.
They talked about each of their sections briefly, explaining their green checkmarks, and any problems on the surface. Before they quit though, Lucinda Van Tassle wrote her a message.
Lady Une, after we dismiss, I would like to talk to you.
Lady Une dismissed a few minutes later, but kept communications open to someone who hadn't shut their communications down yet. "Lucinda, what would you like to discuss?"
"Lady Une. Could you connect me to a first colony constructionist?"
What an odd request. "We built the colonies over a hundred years ago." Hm. "You want a colony historian?"
"No. I believe there are still two constructionists that are still alive. It's been a dream for a long time to meet one of the originals that went out there and made mankind move among the stars themselves. I know it's silly, that's why I didn't bring it up in the group." She tossed her sheeny scarf across the screen. "Even as a celebrity myself, I still have things I am giddy about, and soon they will not exist anymore." she insisted. "Please?"
"Sure. I will connect to the colony growth category, and see if any are still surviving," Lady Une said. "I hope you find who you are looking for."
She dropped communications and went to go fetch the food from the oven. "Mariemaia, it's time to eat."
"Is your group done?" Mariemaia sat down while Lady Une dished out the food for her.
"Yes." Lady Une placed some food on her plate too.
"Talking with your Fallen Ember group again?" Mariemaia said out of the blue. "I still think there's too much power in it. There's not enough checks within it, Lady."
What? Not this again. "No one has full power," Lady Une told her. "We all just work together to make sure things are going smoothly in each category. Different people reach different areas, and by keeping in touch and helping each other, we create stability that keeps the peace."
"By keeping in touch and helping each other, they can also get together and create their own groups and plans," Mariemaia told her. "Nothing is perfect, Lady. Don't underestimate them."
"I don't overestimate anyone, and I don't underestimate either," Lady Une said. "Don't worry. Eat your food, it's getting cold."
"You should add Miss Relena," Mariemaia said, "and you should ask the gundam pilots."
Lady Une tisked her. "I wouldn't do such a thing. Miss Relena has enough on her plate, she doesn't need a monthly meeting with frequent communications between. The young men you are referring to are not gundam pilots anymore. Young people like them do not need to be troubled about my little group, they have enough on their plates with what Revenge of the Lost did to them. It's just a simple check and balance group."
"They were pilots for a little while again. People spotted them," Mariemaia warned her.
"Spottings have gone away, and we know what that was about. This dangerous Revenge of the Lost has been stopped. It will be fine," she assured her.
"Revenge of the Lost was ready to kill maybe up to twenty people or something, but they didn't really do anything else," Mariemaia said as she finished eating. "I would be sad if anything happened to Relena or the others. They were all great people, and knowing their babies died? It would be sad too, but it wasn't real war or power. I wasn't that concerned about it. Stopping them seems to have created more death and problems actually."
Lady Une didn't know how to answer that. "Sometimes, doing the right thing, comes at a cost."
Mariemaia put up her plate, there was nothing left to scrape. "That was so good! Thank you for the lasagna, Lady." She smiled. "If your group ever turns though, Lady, it wouldn't kill like 20, it would kill billions. So just be careful." She passed by and gave her a small kiss on the cheek before going back to her room to play some more.
Billions? My little group? It's not that bad. I've had military commands much larger. Nothing is even shared, there's no money that supplies it, it's fine. "My group is good. Right, Mister Treize?" She glanced at a corner where she swore she saw his shadow for a moment.
His shadow. She hadn't seen that in years. "Are you worried about me, Mister Treize?"
Narrator: After Colony 200. The true threat of Revenge of the Lost, a group that had been working on the inside against RTL itself, has revealed itself as the Fallen Embers. With their entire goal actually being about securing the zero system and it's secrets, they have captured the pilots and their families. Our once brave heroes who had survived through so much including Mariemaia's army, have finally been defeated. What will happen to the women and children that RTL had created of them? What is the inescapable prison that Fallen Embers wants to put the pilots in? And can our defeated heroes, once again defeat the real threat that casts a long shadow of war?