Trowa sat in the social hall alone, the TV transmission on. He was ignoring it for the most part, fiddling with his laptop instead, but the news was on and he glanced at it between breaks in programming. He paused as a news bulletin came on about a colony invaded by Taurus suits. He sighed and shook his head. This war would get much worse before it would get any better. He was about to return to cyberspace when a familiar face caught his eye. For someone with amnesia, it didn’t happen often. A face, angrily glaring at the surrounding suits, standing alone in the mist of the panicked captives. A face with fierce, defiant eyes.
“Catherine…” he whispered. He set his computer aside and left the room.
Trowa, wearing his pilot suit, entered the hanger that held the Gundams. He glanced around and found Howard, who was working on Heavyarms. The suit was taken apart to the point that is was almost unrecognizable.
“Damn, that won’t work.” he muttered to himself. He glanced around, and focused on Zero. He squared his shoulders. Yes that suit would do nicely. He would apologize to Heero for taking it later. He took a large hop and the lightened gravity allowed him to drift to the mobile suit. Howard noticed the form, recognized it as Trowa.
“Hey, Trowa! What are you doing?” he demanded. “That’s Heero’s suit.” Either Trowa did not hear the man, or he ignored him. He flipped open Zero’s cockpit and went inside. The trap door closed, the boy inside. Wing Zero’s eyes flared to life, and before anymore could happen, the suit left, speeding towards the afflicted colony. Towards Cathy.
“He did what?!” Brekke demanded, her fists tightening on the rim of the control panel. Howard’s face stared back at them through communication screen.
“What the hell does he think he’s doing?” Duo asked, shocked.
“We have to go after him.” Quatre told them, the calmest of the bunch. “The Zero system is just too dangerous for him in his current state. Who knows what it will do to him.”
“Right. I’m coming Howard. Is Guardian ready?” Brekke asked. He nodded. “Yep. I finished repairs this morning.” he confirmed.
“Alright then. Let’s go.” Brekke said and she turned and walked swiftly from the room. Duo and Quatre quickly followed her. They moved past Sally and Wufei.
“You’re awfully quiet. Aren’t you even a little bit concerned about your friend, there?” she asked. Wufei did not look at her.
“There’s no point to my going with them. The girl is capable of taking care of Trowa by herself, and as long as Nataku is immobile, there’s nothing that I can do.” he said simply. She sighed, and her eyes trailed after the leaving pilots.
“A Gundam! There's a Gundam here!” The panic in the soldier’s voice died away into static as Zero’s thermal blade sliced through his suit. The hysterics spread quickly through the other soldiers and they quickly formed a shabby strategy against the powerful suit. It did them little good.
“Please be alright, Cathy.” Trowa pleaded silently. The suit was acting strangely. The harder he fought, the stranger he felt. He watched a mobile suit of Oz’s destroy one of it’s comrades in a conversation he could not hear. “Cathy!” he insisted. “I have to save her… My sister…” The suit was in his mind, controlling him, making him see things. He didn’t understand what was going on. However, Zero did. And then Trowa was lost to Zero’s system. Catherine stood in front of his mobile suit. No, wait. That was a mobile doll. He shot it. No, it really was Catherine, oh God, he’d killed her… Noooooooo!!! He tried to focus. There was a Taurus in front of him. He raised Zero’s buster rifle, ready to vaporize it. He did not see the colony behind it. Quatre did.
“Trowa no!” he shouted, slashing desperately through the Taurus with his sickles. “There are people on that colony you want to protect! Remember?” Duo and Brekke were too far away to hear them, too busy fending off more Oz suits. Trowa made no reply. He took deep breaths and fought the images swelling in his head. Panicked, Quatre continued. “Trowa, it was you who corrected the mistakes that I made. Don’t tell me that you are going to repeat them! Trowa!” Still there was only muffled breathing in response. Quatre was desperate. “Don’t let Zero control you! You’re stronger than that. You’re stronger than me! You can beat the system, Trowa.” The boy in Wing Zero took a quivering breath.
“People…I want…to protect?” he whispered hoarsely. And with that sentence, the dam in his mind broke, drowning him in a tsunami of memories.
Quatre, in a mobile suit. The very one her sat in now. Another boy, Heero. An explosion, pain, then darkness, then the cold…
Trowa gave a ragged scream, the sound clawing its way out of his raw throat, and the images barraged him.
He was on earth. He was in the circus. He was in a mobile suit, his mobile suit, and Cathy decked him, hard across the jaw. He was an Oz soldier. No, he was only dressed as an Oz soldier. He punched a handcuffed Duo in the stomach and gave him some sort of device. He was dabbing blood from bruised and broken body in a cell. He was back on earth, sitting on his Gundam with a cool cloth pressed against his head, talking with a girl. With Brekke. Then they were sitting in a forest together. They were kissing. They were on an Oz space ship and she was dying. She was the broken body, covered in blood. He was sneaking into her cell. He was leaving and he leaned down and kissed her through the bars. Trowa’s eyes flew wide with a final gut wrenching scream, and suddenly it was all back. The faces, the names, the things he had done. Brekke. It was all back. He slowly gripped Zero’s controls, his resolved, renewed.
“That’s right, Quatre, there are people I want to protect.”
The Taurus unit stood no chance against the four Gundams and the battle was quickly over. They stood protectively around the citizens as they returned to their homes and watched the Taurus suits flee. Catherine was in that crowd. She spotted the four imposing suits and ran up to them.
“Trowa! I know you’re here, I know that one of these Gundams is you. You were right Trowa. You need to fight. Free our colonies, and help us form a world of piece. I know you can do it! I know you can.” she shouted to them, praying her heard her. Trowa watched her quietly, reached a hand to her face on his screen.” he whispered to her. Brekke turned her Gundam about.
“I’ll meet you back at Peacemillion.” she called. “I’m going to sweep the surrounding area for any stray suits.” Guardian quickly transformed into a cruiser and shot off. Duo glanced to the other boys. “You two think you can handle there rest here?” he asked.
“Yeah, Duo, we got it.” Trowa told him calmly.
“The I’m taking off. I’m gonna go help Brekke . Catch ya later!” he called, and Deathscythe took off as well. Quatre glanced around.
“Well, Trowa, what do you think? I believe our work here is done.” he said, shifting Sandrock. Trowa nodded to himself.
“Yes, we’re done here.” Trowa agreed. “Goodbye, Cathy.” he added, and turned Zero to follow Quatre back to Peacemillion.
Brekke climbed down out of her Gundam and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Her head throbbed mercilessly. She needed to get more sleep or something. She did not turn as the other Gundams came into the hanger and shut down as well. She peeled her gloves off her slender hands and headed for the door. Aspirin… She did not hear Trowa jump down hastily from his Gundam, nor did she hear his desperate footfalls as he ran towards her. The incessant ache in her head blocked out the soft sound. He caught her wrist and, off balance from his reach, yanked her towards him, bringing their bodies crashing into each other. The pain in Brekke’s head flared anew. She opened her mouth to demand of him just what the hell he thought he was doing, but the sound was smothered as his soft lips pressed over hers roughly, and shocked, she wilted in his embrace. He pressed his mouth against hers with such fierceness that her lip was cut on her teeth. She gasped for breath against him, and he released her. She stared numbly at him, and tasted the salty metallic blood oozing from her bruised flesh. She touched it absently while she gazed at him. He only smiled. It was a quiet smile, a knowing smile. Her eyes widened with realization.
“Trowa…” she started weakly, but he pressed two fingers to her mouth, cutting her off.
“I love you, Brekke.” he said simply. She made a wordless noise halfway between a moan and a squeak. He smiled wider and leaned closer. His voice dropped. “Because I remember, you see. I remember everything.” His eyes danced as she stared at him, shaking.
“T-trowa…?” she whispered huskily. “But…how…?” Then she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him as if she never intended to let go. Maybe she didn’t. He buried his face in her thick curls. “Is it really you?” she mumbled into his shoulder.
“Yes, it’s me.” he promised. He held her as tightly, remembering just how good it felt to have her pressed against him. Quatre came up to them, smiling merrily. He was so happy for them, he felt he would burst. Finally, everything was ok again. Duo watched his self appointed sibling with a smile. No more crying fits in the middle of the night for her. A door slid open to reveal Wufei and Heero. With a raised eyebrow, they took in the scene and glanced at the other two boys.
“His memory is back.” Quatre told them. “He’s really come back to us.” Wufei looked indifferent, but Heero’s features relaxed. It was as close to a smile as the stoic boy ever got. “Maybe we should leave the two of them alone.” Quatre said finally, tugging a protesting Duo out of the room. Wufei followed, and after a moment, Heero did too. The couple finally released each other, but their hands remained entangled.
“Seriously, how did it happen? When?” she pressed breathlessly. He smiled calmly at her and pried a hand loose from hers long enough to brush small damp curls from her flushed face.
“I didn’t really know what was happening.” he admitted. “I think I lost myself to the Zero System. And then Quatre was talking to me. Something inside just…broke. And then it was all back.” he said. Her eyes sparkled in a way he bet had not happened for over 6 months. “Come one, lets go back inside.” he offered. She nodded agreeable, never taking her eyes from his face. With a chuckle, he led the girl deeper into the Peacemillion.
