After much discussion on what should be done with these new visitors, Quatre convinced the pilots to allow them to stay at their camp. The silent group walked through the forest heading towards the pilot’s camp as Shannon endlessly praised Duo.
“Duo…. You are my favorite Gundam Pilot! Your Deathscythe is the best”, Shannon commented.
“If only the other pilots thought the way you do”, Duo sighed pulling his arms back behind his head.
“Shut up, and stop sucking up Shannon”, Tamika sighed.
Shannon whimpered then changed the subject. “Tamika, where are our gundams?”
“Probably on a Rain seeker base”, Tamika answered, distracted by another thought.
“Rain Seeker?” Trowa questioned.
Tamika snapped out of her thoughts and stared at the pilot for a moment. “It’s our organization that we work for, in each dimension we enter they send a base with us. Usually it’s where we would land near or on. But this time it seems they must have been off.”
“I see”, Trowa replied in his usual stiff tone. “But how do you get from dimension to dimension?”
“A machine Rain Seeker has. I have no idea how it works, so don’t ask” Tamika answered picking at her fingernails.
“Where do you think the base is?” Shannon asked.
“I don’t know, for now…. I’ll find it.”
“Can we look for it tomorrow? Can we?! Can we?!”
“I suppose we have too, if we want our gundams.”
“Yeah! I just love it when we get to play detective. Can we hack on to a computer? Please ‘Mika, please!”
“We’ll see what is needed to be done tomorrow.”
The camp was finally reached. Tamika stared up at the four Gundams and smiled. This may be the time for victory! With the four Gundams on our side, and our own, our mission may finally be complete.
Shannon gazed upon the stars and a tear of joy ran down her face, “The stars, I can see the stars….”, Shannon whispered. She flashed back to her world. A city filled with the noise of machines and people crashed once again in to her ears, the sky covered with a black fog from motors blanketed over the stars.
“What’s got you so quiet all of a sudden?” Duo asked.
“The stars…. I can see the stars and the moon!”, Shannon answered excited. “I want to stay here FOREVER!”
Duo rose his eyebrows with wonder, these new comers where very strange.
Groaning Tamika pulled herself up from the grassy ground. She opened her eyes surprised to find her self between Shannon (who has snuggled up to Duo) and Trowa.
The sun had just began to rise and it was still practically dark. Tamika rose up from her bed of grass and soil, to find a carefully placed rose along side a hand written note on her stomach. She was careful not to make sound. Looking over at Shannon again she smiled, she was so much like an innocent child at times. Shannon giggled in her sleep.
Shannon heard Tamika get up. A mischievous giggle rose up into her throat. First panicked that Tamika would know she was awake, but then realized Tamika would only think of it as a reaction from a dream. She clung to Duo a little tighter, and remembered her thoughts of him being her soul mate. With thoughts of Duo she fell into a deep sleep.
Heero lay on his sleeping bag awake, hearing Tamika rise from her bed he shut his eyes. This was the perfect time for him to see if those two were who they claimed to be. He watched her puzzled face stare at a red rose then shift to stare at her other hand, which held a piece of paper.
Tamika opened the note reading it: To prove your self as the great warrior you claim to be, come to Mt. Siete at 18 hundred hours. I’ll be waiting anxiously, my dear.
All had waken up except Shannon. Shannon rose from her bed, her eyes still shut. Unnoticed she stumbled towards the brush and trees. Looking up she saw a smiling Duo, arms open and inviting. “Duo!”, Shannon cried out as she ran toward him. She threw her self into his arms…. Instead in the real world, crashed into a tree, fumbling back knocking into the ground. After a moment of silence and gasps, she lets out a long and loud snore and then snorted.
“Shannon! Wake up, damn it!” Tamika yelled annoyed.
Shannon jumped up in surprise. Finding everyone staring at her she smiled and waved meekly, sweat balls running down off her head. “I’m just gonna…. Uh….gonna…. take a walk.”
“Fine. Be back before dark, I don’t need you getting lost”, Tamika commented.
“Duo, you want to come?” Shannon asked looking at Duo hope filling her eyes.
“Naa”, Duo answered, shrugging.
“Fine then, I understand perfectly….”, Shannon replied arrogantly as she stomped off.
Tamika and the gundam pilots all went back to their work, shaking their heads.
Shannon mumbled angrily as she walked into the unknown woods.
Tamika looked at the sun, now setting behind the mountains. “Damn it, Shan, you better not have got yourself lost again”, Tamika mumbled under her breath.
Earlier in the day most of the pilots had been preparing their Gundams for battle. Heero typed away at his laptop. Trowa and Quatre worked on Quatre’s Sandrock, which had been badly broken up from the last battle. Duo took pride with his gundam, wasting time washing it and cleaning it. Tamika had left camp for several hours to find the Rain Seeker base, which was almost too easy. It was hidden inside a mountain. She asked permission from her superiors to allow the Gundam Pilots to come on to the base. As usual though Rain Seeker protested with its usual excuse, it was a secret base. Only Rain Seeker members could be allowed on base. She had Rain Seeker bring her and Shannon’s Gundams outside the Pilots camp.
Seeing the sun going down reminded her of the challenge note, she finally set her mind on a decision that she would go. She told the pilots she would be leaving to look for Shannon. The pilots didn’t show much care. She left base taking her Gundam, Dark Crow. She arrived at Mt. Siete on time. She awaited her challenger with great excitement. She acknowledged that this was nothing but a pointless battle, but yet she still wanted this fight to come. It didn’t come though, she waited patiently for her challenger, but he or she never came.
Trowa watched Tamika come and go. The two were peculiar. Shannon seemed to be filled with endless joy and happiness. She had a certain way she moved, it wasn’t graceful or clumsy but some how a mix. She had a graceful way of moving but yet she could still find ways to let her clumsiness show. Tamika was complex, her moods shifted too much to put her in a category. One thing that Trowa could understand was she strived in her training. Her eyes stayed focused and her mind set. Her sporadic moods didn’t change her eyes. That was one of the first things he noticed about her.
Trowa nearly laughed when he saw Quatre when he first met the two girls. Quatre acted in his usual friendly ways, but some how he was different. He seemed intimidated by them. Quatre must have found the two attractive; he didn’t disagree with that. They had very beautiful qualities, but Trowa was just not effected by it. The same went for Heero, not effected. Trowa noticed Duo look over Shannon a few times, but that was normal for Duo to do. Trowa suddenly realized how much thought he had put into the girls and forced his mind to focus on his work again.
