DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing belonged to Sunrise and co. I’m not making any profits out of this, so don’t sue. Oh, those you think you’ve never heard before belong to me. And feedback is very welcome, people! ☺
TIMELINE: The story takes place after Survival of the Fittest, I’d say almost two years. This is the second installment of the “Shattered” duology.
NOTE: To avoid confusion, I have italic-and-bold the clones’ name. Hopefully, that could help you understand who’s who.
SHATTERED WALLS I : DECISIONS.
By Arayelle Lynn.
‘The base is totaled!’ Quatre realized with a shock as the truth sank in. They had arrived just as the fight was over. Winteridge had captured MO V and with it, the space colonies fell into his hands. And the Earth Sphere Unified Nation will plunge into chaos without the support from the colonies.
This time, the Gundams had failed the very thing that they were protecting.
Suddenly Quatre’s controls beeped. He recovered just in time to see Wing Zero flew past him, full speed. “Heero! What are you doing?” he cried, opening the channel.
“I will not allow this to happen,” was Heero’s answer.
“But you’d be killed,” Quatre protested, seeing that, already, a dozen or more enemy troops were converging on Wing Zero. “Break off, Heero. It’s useless to die now.”
“I rather die now than let them have their way,” his friend shot back as the line went dead.
Quatre gasped. There was something different about Heero’s voice. It sounded so eerily familiar…
“The Zero System!” he realized with a start. “It has taken over Heero’s mind.”
He moved to join the fray but something stopped him.
“What are you doing?” asked Trowa’s quiet voice.
“We have to help Heero. The Zero system is controlling him.”
“How do you suppose we could help him?”
Quatre felt his desperation grew. “I don’t know! But we can’t let him die now. It’s too early.”
“So, you suppose that we go in and risk ourselves getting blown into bits so that he would not die today but later, huh?” Mylin’s voice said, sarcastically from Altron. Quatre had to remind himself again that Wu Fei won’t be with them anymore.
“Y… yes,” he stammered, uncertainly.
“Good plan,” said the alien then Altron launched, leaving the Gundam pilots staring after her, open-mouthed.
“Don’t die,” said Trowa to his surrogate brother.
“You too.”
>>>@@<<<
He smiled to himself for the battle was won. It had been relatively easy for him and his friends to defeat the Preventers and capture MO V. It had been even easier for them to destroy the Preventers’ white Tauruses and their poor excuse of a defense system with the clones’ ‘new toys’.
“Man, this is how we should’ve made our first appearance to the Gundam pilots,” he said to himself, trailing his hand on the blinking controls. He couldn’t describe how he felt, being in the cockpit, piloting one of the best mobile suits that was ever built. He felt content. He felt as if they belonged to each other.
‘It feels just right.’
It’s not that Winteridge’s gundanium-alloy mobile suits weren’t strong. In fact, the Furies were far more superior than the customary Taurus, Leo and Virgo. It’s just that they were made only for lesser pilots. Call it an advance form of the old customary mobile suits. But the new mobile suit that he’s flying now was made for superior pilots, like him.
He couldn’t wait to utilize his new MS to its full potential. Battling the Preventers was just warming up the engine. What he couldn’t wait was to pit his suit against what the enemy claimed to be the superior mobile suits called Gundams. And he’s determined to give them a shock of their lives.
Suddenly the comm. crackled. The image of Duo Maxwell’s clone appeared on the screen. “We have an incoming.” His smiled widened. “It’s our old acquaintances.”
Heero-clone smiled. He had his wish at last. Opening the channel, he began to issue his orders. “Kylie, stay and supervise the operations here. The rest of us will meet them out. We’ll show them what our new toys can do.”
>>>@@<<<
“Gundam Wing Zero has engaged the enemy fighters,” an agent reported. Lady Une turned her attention to her. “Gundam 03, 04, 05 and Epyon are closing in. ETA twenty seconds.”
“What about the unidentified mobile suits? Have you determined its models?” she enquired. It had come as a great surprise when they found out that there were another set of new mobile suits flying within the enemy’s rank. Truthfully, the Preventers had not expected that the enemy would possess new mobile suits after they had just utilized the still unknown mobile suits in the recent battles.
And where the recent new suits were superior than that of Preventer’s White Tauruses, these particular newer suits proved to be far more superior than both earlier models. Since the only MS that are superior than Tauruses are the Gundams, Lady Une found herself hoping that her guess is wrong.
“I’m receiving the information right now,” said the agent, her hands danced expertly on the keyboard. Then, she stiffened as some images appeared on the screen. “It… it can’t be,” she gasped, but from the lack of surprise in her voice, Lady Une could tell that she had thought about the same thing too. “The specifications of the new models resemble…”
“The Gundams,” Lady Une finished for her. Her face was grim. She looked at the display, comparing the specification of Wing Zero and the new MS. They were identical! “Duke Winteridge now has his own Gundams working for him.”
Sally stared at her. “But that’s not the only thing we should be worrying about,” she said, gravely.
The head Preventers frowned. “What is?”
“It’s only natural to assume that the clones would be piloting the four new models. However,” she paused, thinking hard. “If the clones managed to defeat our Gundam pilots with inferior mobile suits, think what they can do with a mobile suit such as the Gundams.”
Realization hit her like a brick wall. Quickly, Lady Une turned to the comm. officer. “Tell the Gundams to retreat, now!” The comm. officer looked at her, baffled. Recovering, she turned on the channel, trying to patch through the Gundams.
>>>@@<<<
“They’re Gundams!”
“What!” Quatre yanked his throttle to the right, narrowly missing a missile.
“Check your display,” said the image of Duo, calling from the Preventer’s base on Earth. At the same time, another call came in.
“Gundams retreat!”
Quatre looked at Duo. “What’s going on?”
“I guess the Preventers just found out,” said Duo, hearing the call to retreat.
“We don’t have much time,” said Wu Fei, appearing next to Duo. “If you check your screen, you’d notice five unidentified mobile suits coming at you. The clones are in them.”
“Great! Then, we’ll just have a second round,” said Mylin, flying closer to meet the new models.
“No, you fool,” said the Chinese pilot. He knew that the alien did remarkably good with the Zero System but also knew that no one could fight for long without back up. Especially if surrounded by enemies. “The new models are…”
“They’re Gundams!” Quatre gasped, as he read the specifications on the screen. He then looked at another screen, to see how far the new models were. Fear gripped at him. “Heero. We must warn Heero. The four of us won’t be able to handle the clones by ourselves. Especially when they have their own Gundams.”
“Can’t get through to him,” Zechs interjected, hovering just nearby. “He’s switched off his radio.”
Trowa looked at his own screen, seeing the familiar dot racing towards the heart of battle. It was then he realized something. “I think Heero already knows about them. He’s making his way towards the new Gundams as we speak.”
The others looked and indeed saw Wing Zero approaching the five new Gundams.
“He’ll be crushed!” Duo exclaimed. “What could he be thinking?”
“We must get through him before he engaged the clones. MO V is as good as gone. But we can ill afford to lose a superior pilot like him,” said Lady Une, after listening to the whole exchange.
“Question is, how?”
>>>@@<<<
Heero fought like there’s no tomorrow. The MS that came after him were crushed like annoying bugs. Although he knew that they were made by gundanium alloy, he scarcely believed that they were his equal. No, not when they were easily crushed by his buster rifle.
His equal was out there somewhere……
And then he saw them. Five new models coming at him at lightning speed. Five that he could easily identify based on the skills of their pilots. Five in which he had to defeat in order to end this useless war. Five new Gundams against his Wing Zero, the Gundam which was made by the combination of all other five earlier models.
Ignoring his other opponents, Heero pressed on the accelerator to meet the new Gundams. His mission was set as well as his mind. Destroy the enemy or be destroyed. One way or the other, one of the feats will be achieved that day. And he wasn’t worried. He’s prepared to die a long time ago.
“Heero!”
A cry broke through his thoughts, like a knife that pierced through flesh. He blinked, trying to match the voice with a face.
“Heero!”
“Relena?”
Only she could wake him like that.
“Heero!”
No, that wasn’t her.
“Heero!”
Finally, a face matched with the voice. “What, Sara?”
“Get out of there. It’s over,” she said, ignoring the fact that he had just acknowledged her by her false name.
He kept his Gundam forward. He wasn’t surprised that she could somehow patch through even though he had shut down all communication channels. Her hacking skill was as good as his. But then again, that should be right for two people who had shared the same womb for nine months.
“It’s useless to fight now. The others have all retreated.”
Silence.
“Heero, you can’t do this. They’ll crush you,” she said, reading his mind. “You can’t die now,” her tone was suddenly soft and low. “Not when you’ve led me this far.”
That brought his attention. He started to listen.
“Please,” she said, the words sounded awkward on her lips. She seemed to be uncertain about something, as if debating against something in her mind. “Trust me. Live and fight another day. For her,” she said the last word so softly that he had to let the word sank in for a few seconds.
“Give me a chance.”
Something stirred inside Heero then. He could now feel the pain that she was feeling and he knew that she could feel his pain as well. This was the bond that they were born with. A bond that they could never get rid off with time or distant.
“Roger.”
He could almost sense her relief.
>>>@@<<<
“Wing Zero’s retreating!”
“What!”
“My dear clones, that’s enough for now,” said Winteridge, appearing on the screen. “We have won. Outer space is now ours. We’ll deal with them later.”
Grudgingly, the clones obeyed and returned to their new prize, MO V.
>>>@@<<<
The day following the fall of MO V was solemn and grim. Lady Une found herself walking along the corridors, recalling the incidents that took place since Winteridge declared war on the Earth Sphere Nation. She recalled the look on the pilots’ faces when they finally landed on Earth. All of them seemed weary and in verge of giving up. Quatre, of course, blamed himself although he didn’t voice the thought aloud. And what made his state even sadder was seeing Kylie waiting for Heero. The Wing Zero pilot had collapsed as soon as his feet touched the ground. It took Duo and Wu Fei to help him back to his quarters.
As usual, Trowa made his disappearing act right after reaching the base. And Mylin was looking calm but there was a cold determination in her eyes that they had never seen before. She too disappeared right after landing. Only Wu Fei knew her exact location.
Now the Preventers had to set new priorities. As she walked, she thought about plans to be made to prepare for Winteridge’s attack on Earth. Now that he had the colonies’ resources, he would be able to bring the fight onto the Earth whenever he wished. So the Preventers were forced to work with the ESUN defense force and kept watch on all space activities. It was a hard wait, not knowing when the enemy would be attacking Earth, but they couldn’t make the first move, seeing the might of Winteridge’s forces.
Their only hope lies with Quatre Winner, who was planning to return to L4. Even that, many feared for him. Many feared that Winner would suffer the same fate as he did when he was in Winteridge’s captivity. None of them knew how much L4 was affected by the fall of MO V, when all of its neighboring colonies had allied with Winteridge’s forces.
But the young man had been pretty insistent. He believed that he could set up a secret network in the colonies to monitor Winteridge’s movements. He strongly believed that the representatives of the colonies were still willing to work with the ESUN. And with that belief alone, he was willing to return to a home where his enemy was everywhere.
>>>@@<<<
“You’re alright,” said Tricia, relief washed over her. “All of you.”
The image on the screen smiled. “Yes. We got everyone out just in time. The Preventer agents were kind enough to hold the fort until we have the civilians off MO V.” He winked at her. “Don’t worry.”
“You’re tired,” she suddenly said, taking in his weary features. There were signs of growing stubble on his handsome face.
He wiped the sweat on his forehead. “You know how busy we could get. Though, my little brother did not appreciate another parting from his fiancée. He had been complaining about how little time he had with her, though most of the time when they’re together, they fight.”
Tricia smiled at the memory. Then, she reached out and touched the screen. He touched the screen as well, where her hand was. “I wish I am there with you,” she said, softly.
“You’re needed more where you are, my love,” he said. “And we’ve just received a new mission.” He sighed. “Maybe once this is all over, we both can sit down and think about settling on a permanent home.”
“I like that,” she said. “Take care.”
“You too.”
>>>@@<<<
After spending a hard time arranging a shuttle to take him secretly back to his home colony, Quatre found himself staring back at the blue-white ball thinking of the things that he had left behind and thinking of the things that would be greeting him once he reached his father’s resource satellite. He constantly had to remind himself that he was not going back home. He had to remind himself that his enemies were every where and would cause bad things if they detected him.
But then, his mission was necessary as well as dire. He had successfully contacted all representatives from the colonies to meet him on L4 in a secret meeting. He knew that he had to have them to agree on the network that he’s setting up. The fate of the entire colony and Earth rested on this.
With him, was Dorothy. She had immediately insisted on coming with him, knowing the danger and all. Although he had argued hard to persuade her otherwise, Dorothy ended up winning the argument when he found the others supporting her. But having her with him reminded him of the things that he had left on Earth. Seeing her made him feel the slight pang of things that was left undone. Although she meant well, her presence actually distracted him more than not.
A hand landed on his shoulder, breaking his trail of thoughts. Quatre was instantly reminded of the last person that joined him. Trowa was also there, acting as his bodyguard. He was the reason why Lady Une permitted Quatre’s return to outer space. She knew that having the Heavyarms pilot could ensure the safety of Quatre and Dorothy.
So, there they were. Three of them, venturing into the enemy’s territory, hoping to change the tide of the conflict. And each of them was now staring at the colony as they were approaching it, determined not to fail.
Their only hope was that the colonists are still interested in a united nation.
>>>@@<<<
“You’ve woken up,” said Kylie, switching off the database that she was working on.
Heero looked at her, for the first time noticing that she seemed to be hiding something. “What happened?”
Knowing that his question wasn’t about the battle, she swiveled around to face him. “The Preventers are concentrating on protecting Earth now and Winner’s gone with Barton and Catalonia to L4,” she filled him in. “And Relena Darlian is on a meeting with the other representatives,” she continued, hesitantly. Then her face grew grim. “It doesn’t look very good.”
Heero was silent for a while. Then he nodded to himself and made his way towards the door, wordlessly.
“Heero, tell me,” said Kylie, stopping him at the threshold. He looked at her. “You’re controlling the Zero system fine, right?” she asked.
Again, Heero detected something that made him think that she was hiding something. “Fine,” he answered then waited for her to reveal the secret. But she didn’t. Instead, she shrugged and went back to work.
He left, with more questions in his mind.
>>>@@<<<
The meeting wasn’t going as good as he expected. In fact, it got even worse. The minute they gathered in the room, Quatre found himself bombarded with questions and accusations, which he could hardly answer at the speed they were thrown at him. All of the representatives wanted answers. All of them wanted reasons as to how and why the Gundams lost and the colonies fell under Winteridge’s control. All of them wanted explanations, which he himself hardly knew.
“Why didn’t the Gundams come to our aid?”
“Why was the Preventer slow in sending reinforcements?”
“What should we do now?”
“Can we still stop the enemy?”
“What are the Earth representatives doing at a time like this?”
All of these and more, Quatre answered as best as he could. He knew that although he was hardly twenty years old, these people regarded him as someone equal to their age. And he also knew that these people feared for their fate and they needed to lash at someone. And that someone was him. So, he mustered all the courage inside him to answer them as calmly as he could. He had learned a lot about being a politician over the years and he used what he had learned to convince these people that there was still hope.
His only consolation was that Trowa and Dorothy weren’t in the room with him. Or else, things would go out of hand if the two heard such questions.
“Can you convince us why we should ally ourselves with the Earth Sphere Unified Nation when it is clearly that Duke Winteridge will win the war?”
That question brought silence to the chaotic meeting room. All eyes turned to Quatre, who looked at the questioner intently. He was from L2, the colony that had allied with Winteridge nearly at the beginning of the conflict. Truthfully, Quatre hadn’t wanted to call in the representative but he didn’t want to be accused of negligence. And so, he forced himself to invite the representative, hoping to convince him not to join the enemy.
Calmly, Quatre regarded the representative. He spoke. “Because Duke Winteridge’s only goal is to govern the whole Earth Sphere by himself. That’s dictatorship. Once he have complete control over Earth Sphere, there would be no democracy in the ruling system. The Earth Sphere Unified Nation allows us to sit down and make decisions together. We would all have rights to voice our opinions.”
“But we’ve tried sitting down and talk but that usually made the final decisions even harder to reach. And we all know that that is mainly because we have too many voices speaking of different things. Why not have someone who has the final say to all decisions so that we could all reach our goal quickly?”
“Then we might as well reform the Alliance and returned to where we were five years ago,” said a representative.
Another representative looked at Quatre. “Is that why the Earth representatives are slow in making a decision? Because we are colonists?”
He shook his head. “No. They’re as shocked as you all are. They hardly believe that we lost outer space with the fall of MO V.”
“Then the Preventers are to be blamed then? And the Gundams?” said another representative.
Quatre kept his silent at that, knowing that none of them knew that he was a Gundam pilot and that he secretly blamed himself too. And the last statement further embedded the blame into him.
“This is not the time blame anyone,” said a representative, drawing their whole attention. He looked at Quatre. “I know that the Preventers and the Gundams have done their best to protect outer space,” he said. Quatre was surprised to learn that it was the representative from L2. “The only people we should lay our blame on is none other than ourselves.”
There was a collective gasps in the room, followed by a buzz of undertone conversations.
“Yes, we should share the blame too. We’ve done nothing to ensure the safety of our colonies. We made ourselves easy targets for Winteridge.” He nodded. “I myself appreciated the courage shown by Ambassador Winner’s colony by denying alliance with the enemy.”
Then he turned to the rest. “And here, I would like to state that the reason my colony allied with Winteridge was so that we could gather enough information to stop him.” He paused. “We knew all about the clones that Winteridge made in order to counter the Gundam pilots. We also knew that they were genetically engineered so that they would not have any flaws that the Gundam pilots have.”
“My people and I have set up a secret network throughout our colonies so that we could provide the Preventers with the information that they need to defeat him in the final conflict. I wish that your colonies would have thought about that but…” he looked at Quatre. “I guess, that’s why Ambassador Winner has gathered all of us here.”
Surprised by his words, Quatre didn’t realize that he was given a chance to lay out his plan. Then, he nudged himself aware and stood. “Gentlemen, this is what we’re going to do…”
>>>@@<<<
“Everything is set?”
“Yes. Your informant was right. There was a secret meeting on L4. Two of the Gundam pilots are there as well.”
“And that ought to be my old acquaintance, Mr. Winner and I suppose his ever-concern surrogate brother, Trowa Barton?”
“Yes. That would make them easy targets.”
“Easy indeed.” He then shifted to regard the people before him. “Destroy them, my children.”
The clones saluted him and ran out of the room. Winteridge leaned back in his seat, savoring his coming victory.
‘Two down. Three to go.’
>>>@@<<<
The base blared by the sirens. Preventer agents rushed to their posts as the remaining Gundam pilots burst into the control room. Lady Une was already there, issuing orders. She turned when she heard them coming in.
“Colony cluster L4 is under attack,” she said. Heero, Mylin and Zechs didn’t waste any time and went to the hangar. Each of them thought of the same thing.
‘They’re after Quatre.’
>>>@@<<<
“You’re sending the Gundam pilots? Why?” asked the president over the comm. “They’d lose! We can’t lose them now.”
Lady Une looked at him. “Two of the Gundam pilots are on that colony. If I don’t send them, we’ll lose them.” She sighed. “Either way, we’ll lose them all.”
>>>@@<<<
Kylie switched off the comm. after eavesdropping on the exchange between Lady Une and the President. She could hear the fear and urgency in the older woman’s voice. She could almost hear her guilt at having to send the Gundam pilots to their deaths. Kylie knew that there was nothing else the older woman could’ve done. Winteridge had cleverly outsmarted all of them.
But there was something Kylie Rayden could do. So she turned back to the database and continued her work. Her mind was made up.
It was time.
AUTHOR REPLIES: I’m really, really sorry for the delay. This year had been hazardous to my health. After repeatedly been ill early this year, I recently and ‘successfully’ managed to tumble down the stairs!!! Nothing’s broken, I assure you (well, just my pride) and I think I spooked my colleagues with that stunt. If it had been worse and if I had broken something, I might have to copy Heero and mend it myself (ugh!). Anyway, here’s the replies to the ‘Shattered Mirrors’ reviews.
Ookami Kage: Wu Fei and Kylie? Maybe. Wu Fei, Kylie and Mylin? Probably too. We’ll see how everything goes. Besides, I love to play around with my characters’ feelings. I’m a very bad person when it comes to love… he... he... yes, even in real life.
Actually, I heard that the new Gundam series would be made by CGIs. That’s what I heard. Nothing’s confirmed yet. Gundam Seed will not be having a new season. Instead, it follows Gundam Wing’s footsteps and has a movie done. Don’t know when it’ll reach the US shores. How do you find the current Gundam Seed?
Elizabeth: Didn’t know that you feel this way about Kylie. Maybe she has yet to win over your heart, eh? Doubt it though, at the way she seemed to be rubbing on people. I am trying to write about all couples in the GW universe (Relena-Heero, included). Kind of hard to do when you have what, six couples? But I will try to centralize the couples by writing a fic for each of them.
Yeah, there are quite a number of people that think Dorothy is better for Quatre and there are also some who promote Trowa-Quatre romance. I guess, I want to try someone new but hey, we’ll see how that works, okay?
Justin: Thanks for the very enthusiastic review! It felt as if you were here saying it. Yeah, there will be a development between Wu Fei and Mylin thing, though I don’t know when and where it goes. And am proud that you see it coming. And thank you for the compliment. I tried very hard to keep the interaction run smoothly because it’s very important in writing. And I’m sooo happy you’re still reading my work (grinning like an idiot)
I’m so happy for you. Having people who appreciate your original writing is so exciting. Never mind the BTNSS. She’s only jealous that yours are more popular and better than hers. Maybe she doesn’t know that taking a creative writing major doesn’t make her a good writer. I remember reading a book on writing (I forgot by who. It was a while back) He said something like this ‘In each person there is a bestseller’ or something like that. So, she shouldn’t have said that. Who knows, this could be your bestseller!
So keep writing. Don’t listen to people like her. They’re the ones who give writers a bad name.
SilverRocks: There is a reason for Kylie’s behavior. Read ‘Circle of Wishes’ in Zero Tolerance. It’ll give you a clue. I don’t know if there’s going to be a cat fight between Dorothy, Kylie and Relena. For once, Relena’s too compose and refine and Dorothy, although she had once love wars, seemed to have lost that edge when she fell for Quatre. Besides, it was Kylie who left Quatre, remember? And she’ll make sure Duo keeps his silence.
That’s all folks. Till next time.
