PART TWO

 

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Though much is taken, much abides; and though

we are not now that strength which in the old days

moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--

one equal temper of heroic hearts,

made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

-Lord Alfred Tynneson, Ulysses

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FOUR

 

 

 

      The Gundam was serving her well. She had only flown it a few times, but it had been successful. The first had been an uprising in rural northern Asia. Those involved were two relatively large and influential governances who both believed the other was preparing to attack. It was only a minor conflict, and her appearance and ultimatum had cleared the misunderstanding up nicely. Several more like that one had followed.

      The only remarkable one had been a battle with a fortified ORA base near Moscow. Rho claimed that the Alliance had attacked them for its views on pacifism, denouncing the government to be repressive and comparing it to OZ. Kyu had actually participated in this battle, defending the outnumbered Alliance soldiers against the aggressive Rho mercenaries.

      "It will be a force to control the opposition," she had promised Ross. Once she had submitted the plan to him to build a Gundam to counter the other Gundams and convinced him that she was capable of flying it, he had requested that she use it first to impress upon the people that the Alliance meant to maintain civil order.

      Kyu personally did not agree with using Wing Nine as a policing force, but then again, it got her what she wanted, and she did as he ordered. So far, the Gundams had been absent. They always appeared unexpectedly, and seemingly randomly. They targeted only certain troops, generally avoiding the clumsier of the militia. They had also targeted Rho, she noted, which made her wonder if there was something she was missing in her analysis.

As Kyu prepared for her next mission, she reflected on the day she had finally found Yuy.

      He had been more than she expected. Dangerous and lethal, but also calm and unconcerned with her threats. He had disarmed her almost casually.

      "If you want to do something for Relena, try making peace instead of fighting," he had said, and thrown her gun to the ground before walking calmly away. Of course, she could have shot him in the back, but it wasn't her style, really. She wanted to kill him fairly, honestly, which meant she had to be better than him.

And he was, she admitted grudgingly, far above her level.  He was fast and he had skills, the like of which she could perhaps equal, but not so much as to defeat him without truly understanding him. So she decided to become like him and thus devised the plan for Wing Nine. She had trained and built for four months until it was complete and so was she. She hadn't had a chance to find him yet, so she bided her time and waited for the pattern to develop, and meanwhile did what she had to do.

      This wasn't a Gundam mission. She wasn't doing it for Ross, even. Relena's brother Milliardo, generally known as Zechs Merquise, had given her information on a coded bomb threat on the Alliance citadel in London. The Alliance hadn't decoded it yet, the message said, but he figured she could do it.

      Zechs and she had formed a bond of respect over the few times they had met. He said she reminded him of someone she knew, although he never said who it was. He knew that she had a certain level of expertise in this sort of decoding, which was probably he reason for his request. Grateful to have a mission with a decent objective for once, she took to it and unraveled the meaning more quickly than she had expected.

      I'm ready, she decided, and left for the tower.

 

 

 

      Une glanced down at her dress with a sigh. "It has been a long time since I was out of uniform. Officially, that is," she added. "First OZ, and then the Preventers, and now I’m a civilian again."

      "Yes," Noin agreed, speaking as quietly as Une, despite the noise of the crowds around them. "I understand exactly what you mean. Even though Zechs and I were definitely out of the military for a while."

      "On the subject, he should be here to meet us soon," Sally reminded them. The blonde was leaning against the wall, arms across her chest, eyes drifting lazily around the heat-roiled street of São Paulo. It was a stance she was inclined to adopt when she was thinking deeply, or merely passively carrying on a conversation.

      "Perhaps we should sit and have a bite to eat?" Une suggested with a gesture toward the small restaurant near where they stood.

      "I'd certainly love to escape the heat," Noin admitted, wiping the faint signs of moisture from her face. "And it would be much more inconspicuous."

      "Again, speaking of which..." Sally proclaimed with a nod back down the street as she sat to join the other women. Both turned to see their comrade striding down the street. Noin sighed. He stood out, even after cutting his hair from his waist to his shoulders in an attempt at “blending”, a fact she mourned on occasion despite the fact that he was still as beautiful as always. She offered him a discreet smile, which he almost returned before joining the three women at the table.

      "Have you spoken to Yuy?" Une asked without preamble.

      "I spoke with him last night," Zechs responded with a glance around the busy streets. "He and the other Gundam pilots are in different locations: where, I do not know. He thought it would be wise to keep them a secret for now."

      "He doesn't trust us," Noin said flatly.

      "Not exactly the problem, Noin," the blonde man answered softly. "He didn't say a lot, but I think he doesn't feel like bringing us into this is fair unless we meet with all of them together."

      "Fair enough," Une replied, taking control of the situation.  "Did he give a place or time? And do they know who killed Relena?"

      A dismayed expression flashed on his face as his dead sister was mentioned. He had mourned quietly, but Noin could sense a great deal of emotion beneath the surface when he spoke of her. "He will contact me when he has spoken to the others. He is not forthcoming, and none of them are prone to openly accept allies, so getting this much from him is the best we can do unless they decide they want us in."

      "In the meantime," Sally interjected, her face showing the pale beginnings of a smile, "we can do what we can to help them unofficially."

 

 

 

      Kyu wrapped the cord around the pipe, tightening it to ensure that it would hold her weight. Carefully, she moved to the edge of the roof, gazing down into London. The city was a myriad of lights, glittering like stars or diamonds along the darkened city. The Alliance Citadel towered far above the other buildings in the great English city, a monument to grandeur and arrogance. These such towers had been built in all of the most powerful of cities over the past years, to remind the citizens that the Alliance was there for their protection an well-being. An apt target for the anarchist.

      She had tried to gain entry directly, she reminded herself as she slipped over the side of the skyscraper. She had presented her case toward Ross himself, showing him the decoded data. He still mistrusted her, she knew, despite her seeming loyalty. The president likely knew something of her background, and if he was not aware of all of it, he did at least know the most unsavory portions. And despite Relena's steadfast declaration of her innocence, he was the kind of man not likely to trust someone convicted of murder, especially considering her zeal for the Gundam project. He doubted her skills, as well, as she had no "professional" certification or training. He would not grant her access on even the chance she was right.

As a last resort, the Japanese girl had even attempted to contact Zechs Merquise, who had some influence in the Preventers that he might be able to use. She had been unable to reach him, and assumed that, her only two legitimate options deprived her, she resorted to a more familiar one.

      While breaking and entering wasn't the best method for gaining trust within the hierarchy, Kyu would hopefully be able to avert the crisis without drawing attention to her presence. Ross would gloat, naturally, that she had been wrong after all and perhaps she was not as skilled as she assumed, but she cared little what the man thought of her. He was a tool, and she would use him until Yuy was dead, and no longer.

      Kyu was not exactly certain where the bomb was, although she had been able to determine that there was a prominent gathering taking place in one of the large conference rooms on the on twenty-third floor. She imagined that this was the target.

There were one hundred and eight floors in the tower, and the top of the citadel tapered to a point by means of a series of decorative terraces to the flag of the Alliance that was hung at the utmost point. The upper floors were mainly office space and temporary housing from outer-provincial ambassadors, senators and the like. As such there were a number of empty rooms available and unguarded for her use.

      A thorough security check had assured her that she would be able to enter this particular room without raising an alarm. The heating and cooling system was malfunctioning, and as a grace to those working, the windows were left slightly open during the night.  Kyu lowered herself to the ninety-seventh floor, and bracing her legs against the steel frame of the building, reached between the sill and the pane and pushed up. It slid easily open and she swung inside, landing silently on the soft, magenta carpeting. Excellent, she thought with a grin. And now to the elevator shaft.

Realizing that although her dark clothes were suitable for sneaking around places she wasn't supposed to be, she would look fairly suspicious in decent company, a factor which might come into play en route to the elevator, she kept to the darker corridors, hoping that no one was working late tonight.

     Thankfully, she reached her destination without incident and no one was in the elevator when it arrived, but she slipped through the hatch and crouched on its roof as a measure of caution. As it shot downward, she set to work. The bomb should register as a fairly large supply of something, and her equipment was able to trace most of the commonly used chemicals in explosives and a few of the more rare. she got nothing. The elevator was still now, resting on the twenty-second floor, and she tried to reason where the explosive might be.

      Suddenly, the door to the elevator slid open. She crouched instinctively, listening as someone moved inside. The doors slid shut and as they did she heard whoever was inside reach for the hatch and slowly, slowly, lift it up.

 

 

 

      "Quatre, have you gotten any idea of where we should next attack?"

      The blonde pilot sighed. "I'm afraid Rho is being unusually silent recently. I think perhaps we need to start looking deeper. Have Heero and them found out anything more about Kushcrevska?"

      "Not since you spoke to them. She's good. There's very little trace of her anywhere. It's as if she came from nowhere. They haven't managed to identify her bodyguard either. Have you found anything?"

      "Not yet. She never even speaks to him in public, and I can't find anything about her that isn't public. It seems fairly straightforward."

      "If it weren't for the fact that there are no personal records of her, I'd say she was just a figurehead. As it is, I think she’s a bit too mysterious to be innocent."

      "Then again, the innocent don't always have nothing to hide," Quatre reminded him. "Justice is not always even-handed."

      "Quatre, you are quite different from who you used to be."

      "I'm still the same inside, Trowa," he said, a touch of his natural light-heartedness and softness returning momentarily. "But it's easier to be cold when you have to kill people every day."

      "That's true," Trowa commented. "Still, the Quatre I knew never let hatred hurt his soul."

      "The Quatre you knew was hurt by other things than hatred."

      "What about Callista?" Trowa inquired mildly.

      Curiously, Quatre was not reticent on the subject, as he had been of late. Perhaps it was because only Trowa was there to hear him. "Callista is a friend from my childhood. She had a crush on me when we were children. I admit that my motives haven't been that pure--I wanted comfort more than anything--but I do think that I've fallen in love with her." Quatre's expression grew sad, the innocence returning once more. "She said she liked my kind side more as well."

      "Maybe you should not give up on either side of Quatre," Trowa advised, "until you understand it more fully." He smiled comfortingly. "But for now, we have to discover the truth behind Operation Rho and find some way to undermine it. If it, indeed, is our only enemy."

 

 

      "Duo Maxwell," she stated with surprise and distaste. "What are you doing here?"

      "I might ask you the same thing," he replied with an infuriating grin. "Heero's not here, you know."

She glared at him. They watched each other for a tense moment, until suddenly, she whipped a gun from her side and pointed it toward his face. "Are you behind this?"

      "Behind what?" he demanded, eying the gun carefully.

      "The bomb, you idiot."

      "Oh, that." He nodded knowingly. "I'm surprised you figured it out. Unless you're working for someone else?"

      "Like who?"

      "Rho, perhaps?" he suggested.

      "Maybe I should ask you the same thing."

      "Please," Duo responded, "if you figured that code out all on your own, then I know you have to be bright enough to figure out we're against the ORA."

      "How did you know about the bomb?" she demanded.

      "I decoded it, same as you did."

      "Then you're here to..."

      "Of course."

      Kyu shook her head. "I thought you were against the Alliance."

      "Naturally, since the Alliance is officially against us. But hey; that didn't stop us from fighting for the colonies and it won't stop us now." His grin faded into something more serious.  “We aren't anarchists. We want peace. We want the Alliance to win, but frankly, it hasn't got what it takes to fight what it’s gotten itself into. We're after the same thing, Kyu."

      "Then why did Heero kill Relena? She was what made the peace work."

      "If you want to know, ask him yourself. As for now, I have a bomb to defuse."

      Kyu shook her head. "I couldn't find it. It's-"

      "In the maintenance shaft over the conference room."

      "How did you find it?"

      He grinned again. "Trade secret," he proclaimed. "By the way, it's in a rough place. It'd be a lot easier if we worked together."

      "You're suggesting that even though I'm trying to kill your friend?" she enquired doubtfully.

      He shrugged once more. "It's an unusual friendship. We aren't like normal people, after all."

      "Fine. But I still intend to kill him."

      "Understood. And I still intend to stop you." He held out a hand as he stood. "Shall we?"

 

 

 

      Duo examined the wires in front of him, praying that whatever maniac held the detonator waited at least a few minutes longer to ignite his handiwork. Bombs were not his specialty. He knew more about them than most people, granted, but this was a very unusual bomb. Absolutely peachy. "I think it's the green one," he ventured to Kyu, who had just managed to squeeze around him and examine the configuration herself.

      She glanced over the bomb, her face concentrating on analysis.    "Don't cut any of them," she commanded.

      "What's that?" he asked, raising a dubious brow.

      "This is an unusual bomb. It doesn't have the usual trip and failsafe wires. You use this bomb if you really, really want it to go off. The fluid is bicarbonate-resium, and it can only be produced in space, specifically around Venus, but it's extremely explosive if mixed with water, which is relatively common."

      "I love the sarcasm, teacher lady."

      "That'll earn you a detention, young man," she remonstrated, and he grinned at her again. It was not so infuriating this time. "Anyway," she continued, "the only way to deactivate this kind of bomb is to physically remove the circuit to which all of the wires are connected without tripping any of them."

      "And you're going to do this...how?"

      She brandished a small pen, pointed it at the area in question and pressed the side. A red laser cut through the musty darkness of the shaft and began to make a linear path along the metal. Suddenly, a beep resounded through the metal corridor, and they held their respective breaths for several moments.

      "It's clear," Duo breathed. He grinned. "Nice work."

      "I'm not completely helpless," she retorted.

      "I don't want you to think of the Heero thing as a damper on this issue, but would you like to go out for coffee or something?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIVE

 

      In the past few months, David Harrenhelm had become an almost redundant member of the council.  After the assassination of Relena Peacecraft, there had been a great amount of work for the minister of civil affairs—dealing with riots and petitions for rearmament, along with the disturbed and demoralized citizenry to losing their leader.  It was especially profound in the colonies, and David had found himself spending as much time flying between earth and the colonies as anything else.

      With the formation of Rho and the reappearance of the Gundams, however, the military had overtaken a large portion of his responsibilities.  Rebellions had been breaking out constantly, small and large alike, and any civil affair was taken into consideration as a possible act of war.

      Thus he had assumed, in the sudden absence of official activity, the unofficial role of secretary, taking what notes he would of the meetings, and, later each night, adding his own speculations as to what they might mean.  He knew as much about the situation as any man save Ross, who was so skilled at intrigue that deception on many fronts was second nature to him.  Power drove him; David could see it and he expected a few members of the council did as well.  It would be the undoing of the Alliance, he felt, yet there was nothing short of open rebellion that he could do.

      This particular meeting ran about as any other. Harrenhelm was beginning to think that it would pass without crisis, and as the menial tasks of the meeting drew to a close, David barely repressed a sigh of relief.  The atmosphere of late had been one of an almost brooding tension, and he had begun to fear that Ross might do something rash.  Just as he and the other board members were preparing to adjourn, the president cleared his throat.

      "One final matter."  The council turned toward him.  "You are all aware of the severity of the matter in regard to the rebel forces.  We have, for the last several months, been hassled by both them and the ORA.  The public is beginning to attribute our dissociation with this organization as weakness and unwillingness to protect the people from internal threats.  After much investigation, I have become assured that the ORA is not a militant organization by nature but by necessity, as we have become.  Thus, I move we seek and Alliance with this organization to exterminate the dissident forces."

      The council murmured uncertainly.  The Minister of Disarmament spoke up.  "Rho always seemed to be much more aggressive in their policies than us.  Their founding point is rearmament.  I wish to maintain our more pacifistic nation."

      "Minister, I share your sentiments.  All of us wish for peace.  But my information on the ORA tells me that they share our dislike for the Gundams."  He produced several images, three of which were maps and the others David recognized as images from recent battles.  "These last three battles," Ross continued, "at their Siberian Base, the Red Ford Citadel, and the North Atlantic Base, have all been orchestrated in such a way to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.  Only two battles between them and the anarchists have been in populated areas.  Rho has even reverted to Mobile Dolls in its more heavily battered regiments.  Everything suggests that they will ally to our cause given the opportunity.  They wish to destroy the Gundams as much as us."

      The council still seemed uncertain, but most seemed resigned to falling in with Ross's wishes.  David cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses.  "One question.  I can't help but imagine...Assume we undergo this alliance, and our forces are victorious against the Gundams, as you presume they will be.  Will we return to disarmament as a policy?  By its nature, the ORA can not continue its existence under those terms."  The pacifistic ministers will react to that, he thought triumphantly.

      "We must have peace," several of them muttered.

      "Peace!"  Ross laughed.  "Of course we will have peace.  And disarmament.  Did I say our alliance would extend beyond this war?  The purpose is to eliminate the Gundams, is it not?  And such an Alliance would technically bring the ORA under our jurisdiction, as we are the supreme ruler of the Earth Sphere.  Should our objectives succeed, the ORA will be disbanded, or possibly reformed under the Preventers.  I believe we turned out several dissenters in the ranks of that organization, exposed traitors that will be dealt with when found.  Perhaps some of our allies could be persuaded to fill those positions. Have no fear, council members, for when the war is won, we will return to our original policies, and peace will be ours once more."

      David understood now.  He would pretend to befriend Rho, and when his war was one, he would turn against his allies and destroy them, re-establish the supremacy of the Earth Sphere, and consolidate his own power.  But the council was convinced, and there was nothing he could do.  They failed to see the danger it posed, even to themselves.  The council was in his hands, now, and he was slowly gaining power over them, and subsequently, the world.  David gave his grudging approval as the board members looked expectantly at him, a reluctance that doubtless did not go unnoticed.

      After the adjournment, David walked down the hall toward his private office.  He avoided the mingling of the ministers in the hallway, feeling ill at the thought of joining the ORA.  Something had to be done.  Ross had to be removed from office, before his ambition destroyed everything the last war had wrought.

 

     

      For some reason, Duo felt extremely nervous.  Battles did not normally have this sort of effect on him, especially ones this planned out.  Despite his carefree nature, he was very well-trained in combat, and as lethal as any perhaps save Heero.  "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered to himself.  Duo had stayed in the Sahara with Quatre and Trowa, and Wufei had joined Heero in Space.  Wufei was more tactically minded than was Duo, and his services were best employed with Heero, hacking data and trying to work out Rho's strategies.

      Duo sighed.  The ORA was clever, whoever was running it.  They managed to maintain a front of peace with all except for rebels, of which the Gundams were a part, yet to the trained eye they were clearly antagonistic to peace of any kind.  The others agreed that Rho was in all likelihood behind the rebellions previous to Relena's assassination; it was a well-supported theory, but one that could not be proved, especially coming from the alleged harbingers of war.  The ex-Preventers, according to Heero, were working on the problem as well.  Duo had managed to allocate some armaments to which they had put to excellent use.  Sally Po had staged thirteen riots in South and North America, Noin and Zechs Merquise nineteen in Asia and the Pacific, and Une had been working in the colonies.  The protests were orchestrated to be antagonistic to the Alliance's brutal war tactics, as well as a call for the suppression of the ORA.

      Quatre and Trowa, recently with his aid, had been concentrating on the more telling shows of power in North Africa and the Middle East.  Heero's intelligence had shown that the ORA was receiving large shipments of armaments to an undisclosed location in the desert.  Some discreet searching on Quatre's part, through his extensive network of contacts, had located the base somewhere a couple of miles from Riyadh.  Moreover, they had discovered that the ORA was planning to attack the Viceroy, who was one of the leading voices in the call for peace.

      They decided to attack first, and hopefully divert a catastrophe for the pacifists.

      The sheer size of the base and the enormity of its forces prevented an all-out assault.  Three Gundams may win out against the less powerful mobile suits of the ORA, but it would be a close battle, and a large risk.  Trowa had proposed the strategy, and outlined the specific courses he expected the enemy forces to take.

       The Riyadh base was located in a depression, presumably to hide it from accidental passersby.  The southwest of the base was close to the sea, with a long sight distance and to the southeast was uncertain terrain with unstable ground, impractical for attack.  The slope to the east extended most of the way around the north, where an attack would probably come with the least notice, and this was where the major strength would be located.  The trick was to draw that strength out and make it vulnerable to attack

       Heavyarms and Deathscythe attacked simultaneously, sweeping in from the east and west.  The heavily armored Aries II suits flooded out to meet them, aided by the intuitive new design of the Omega-8, a maneuverable and sleek fighter that was the match of ten Aries.  They were not, however, a match for the power of the enhanced Heavyarms and Deathscythe.  Trowa had reorganized the ammunition distribution so that he had six more rounds on his machine guns and extra mounted rocket launchers.  Duo had enhanced his missile-firing capabilities as well, and had doubled the power of his scythe.  He felt a moment of remorse at how quickly the two of them dispatched the forces.  Still, there were an abundant supply of the lesser suits, and eventually the number would begin to weigh on the two Gundam pilots.

      Sandrock swept in from the west side of the fortress once Rho had deployed its forces to counteract the other two suits.  The twin shotels cut a diagonal line from Heavyarms to Deathscythe, lessening the resistance and increasing the confusion of the enemy suits.  It also brought Quatre between the Rho suits and the base.  The major military strength left in the base were the anti-aircraft missiles and laser cannons, which were largely ineffective against the Gundams.  Quatre eliminated the remaining suits, while Duo and Trowa finished the remnant outside the base, and then systematically destroyed the ammunition storehouses and laser cannons.  It seemed they had won. 

       Duo felt a moment of unease before the surprise came.

       Reinforcements came swarming in from the southeast, attacking the Gundams from behind.  They were Omegas, all of them, and there were twice as many as had been at the base.  “They tricked us!” Duo shouted.

       “How did they know we would attack?” Trowa asked, barraging the oncoming suits with his machine guns.  “Did one of our sources leak?”

       “I’ve never had a leak!” Quatre pronounced.  Sandrock leapt into the fray, slicing apart Omegas and not bothering to dodge their attacks.

       “Quatre!  Even Sandrock can’t hold up against that for long!” Trowa warned.  The blonde pilot was apparently unaffected by this, as he continued to slice suits without regard to himself.  Trowa and Duo were forced to divert their attention to the Omegas that had penetrated Quatre’s onslaught.  Deathscythe split a wave in half, and Duo thrust the suit over a sand dune toward where Sandrock struggled.

       Before he reached Quatre, he saw another shape.  Duo swore.  “Kyu!”

       “What?” Trowa asked.

       “It’s Kyu!  The crazy Japanese girl.  She’s piloting for the Alliance!”  Trowa grunted a reply as he was hit by a missile.

       “Duo,” Kyu’s voice said calmly.  “I told you this would happen.”

       He remembered.  “If it wasn’t for Heero,” she had said, “I would probably be fighting with you guys.  I wish we didn’t have to be enemies, Duo.  But that’s the way things are, and it’s going to catch up with us eventually.”  They had spent all night talking, despite the fact that they both knew they shouldn’t.  He wished he had met her under different circumstances.

       “I don’t want to fight you!” he told her.

       “You will, though,” she said, and Wing Nine lunged for him.  He dodged and she attacked again.  He fought defensively for a while, unnerved by the fact that she was trying so hard to kill him.

       “Fight me!”

       “No!”

       Kyu fought him harder.  Duo suddenly realized that if he didn’t fight back, she may actually kill him.  Her suit was strong, modeled after Heero’s original suit but modified and improved to match Wing Zero in its current state.  She had told him as much.  He parried her beam sword and spun the scythe around to bring it through her arm and disable her.  She blocked it, to his surprise, and from that moment, he was not just fighting to survive.

       They battled, oblivious to the chaos around them, each trying to act and react faster than the other.  It was close combat, sword against scythe, and sparks flew more than once as their weapons clashed.  Duo became desperate as the damage inflicted on his suit mounted.  He would not last much longer, he knew.  He feigned a high attack and then swung low with the scythe.  Kyu had anticipated him, however, and she propelled her suit to the right, somehow spinning behind him and knocking him to the ground.

       “Thanks, Duo,” she said.

       “Kyu!”

       “I’m not going to kill you.” He could almost hear her smile as she laughed.  “I don’t need the Alliance anymore.”  Wing Nine stepped away.  “Looks like you could use some help.”

      

       After the four Gundams had cleared the area of the Alliance troop, Kyu faced the three boys over the desert battlefield.  “Are you on our side now?” Duo asked dubiously.

       “No,” she answered.  “I only helped you because...the Alliance is being corrupted,” she informed them.  “Ross is going to destroy everything that Relena built.  He’s my enemy now.”

       “Why did you fight me?”

       “I needed to be good enough.”

       “For what?”

       She never answered, only sighed and said, “Goodbye Duo.”  Wing Nine took to the air, and faded into the sky.

       “Help comes from unexpected places,” Trowa said mildly.

       Duo watched as the suit, so like and unlike Wing, and felt his stomach tightened.  “We won the battle because of her,” he said, “but I think Heero may be in danger.” 

      

 

 

 

 

SIX

 

      Kyu slipped in easily enough.

      The battle at Riyadh base had been taxing.  Deception had been her prerogative from the outset, but maintaining carrying through her betrayal was something disgusting to her.  She felt soiled after turning against those other soldiers.  Mind, she hadn’t liked them and they loathed her, but such behavior did not come easily.

      But it had been necessary to test herself.  So here she was.  It was one of the old L2 colonies, ones that had been around before she was born.  Duo had come from L2, she remembered suddenly, and wished she hadn’t.  They had gotten along superbly, but nothing could mend what she was about to do.  Even though he claimed he understood her desire to kill Heero Yuy, she knew that it was something he would not ever be able to forgive her for.

      Heero had been in the same place for weeks, hiding in an abandoned warehouse that was discreetly owned by Quatre Winner.  Kyu had supposed it would be big enough to house Wing Zero and Chang’s Gundam, Shenlong.  But apparently the pilots had decided to forego the Gundams.  Intelligence gathering, then?  But why come all the way up here?  She dismissed the matter.

      Chang was out; she had waited for him to leave the building before she entered, knowing that he would hamper her efforts despite his past history with Yuy.  It was eerily easy to enter, however, possibly because the two were not expecting infiltration, although that seemed inconsistent with her knowledge of them.  She found him on the main level.  They had converted it to a hangar after all; he was working on a shuttle that had doubtless been in what they had arrived.  She felt compelled to watch him for a moment before acting, staring over the railing of the second-level scaffolding as if she would discern the reasons behind his actions through mere observation. 

       At last, she spoke.  “Yuy.” 

       Heero did not look up.  “You still want to kill me, then,” he observed.  He set a wrench on the ground and stood, turning toward her.  “I thought you were working for the Alliance.”

       “You beat me last time,” she said.  “But I can’t ignore the fact that Relena is dead, and that you killed her.”  Kyu made her way down to him slowly.  He made no move to defend himself.  “I do want to ask you why.”

       “Sacrifice is a part of war,” he said.

       “That’s a callous way to view a life.”

       “War is callous,” he told her.  “And it’s a part of life, same as revenge.”

       Her rage, suppressed and funneled into finding him and killing him, erupted violently.  She struck out at him, and he countered, faster than she would have believed possible.  He defended, and she attacked, and soon managed to contain her anger enough to concentrate on the fight and the fight alone, blow for blow, move for move, attacking and countering and defending.  At first they moved as if choreographed, matching one another perfectly, but blows began to land, and their rhythm faltered.  The anger resurfaced, and she lashed out with fury as well as her competitive instincts, wanting to win, wanting him to die, wanting things she knew she could never have, and focusing all of the energy and grief into that body moving ever just out of her reach.  She spun away and brought her gun to bear.

       But he was faster, sprinting the distance between them and knocking the gun from her hand.  He pinned both of her arms to her sides, holding her tightly while she struggled.  “I don’t want to kill you,” Heero Yuy said.  “You could help us.”

     “No!” she screamed, wrenching against his grip.  She felt tears against her face.  He was too strong.  She screamed and cursed at him, trying to pull free of his grip.

     “There’s something important you should know before you make up your mind.”

     “You killed Relena!” she yelled.  “Nothing can change that!” 

     “You can kill me if you want to,” he said calmly, “after you learn what you need to know.” 

“Then tell me,” she demanded bitterly, ceasing her struggles and fighting to maintain her composure. 

“I can’t just tell you,” Heero said.  “You won’t trust me.”

“Then we’re wasting our time.”

“I can show you.”  He released her, and bent to pick her gun from the floor.  Hesitantly, he turned it around and offered it to her.  “I trust you not to shoot me in the back,” he said.  “Trust me.”  Kyu took the gun, and was about to speak when Yuy turned abruptly and began to walk away.  Feeling confused and cheated, but slightly curious, Kyu sighed and followed him.

      

    

       

       Yuy led her through the streets of the colony, walking at an annoyingly slow pace.  Her malice raged in her again, and more than once she considered shooting him despite her reservations.  What could he have to show her?  In the end it was her curiosity that kept him alive.  He said nothing to her while they journeyed, and she asked nothing of him.

       After several miles, they came to a nondescript three-story building, and Yuy led her toward the back.  They entered through a small side door, went down a narrow corridor, turned right, and encountered a long staircase.  After ascending that to the second floor, they navigated several more hallways.  He came to a halt before a plain wooden door, and said, “Wait here a second.”  He went in, and she leaned against the wall impatiently.  After several moments, the door opened, and she raised a brow.  It was Chang.

       He immediately went for his gun.

       “Don’t worry,” she said irritably.  “I’m not going to kill anyone.”

       The Chinese pilot eyed her suspiciously.  “Why are you here?”

       “I—“  The door opened.

       “Kyu,” said Yuy.  He motioned her inside.  She repressed a smile at Chang’s shocked expression, and walked past him to the doorway.  As she went through, she gazed into the room beyond, looking for something amazing.  And she gasped in shock.

       The Former President smiled.  “I was wondering when I’d see you again, Kyu.”

 

 

 

______________________________________________

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