Chapter 2

A Spy within the Midst

By Blackharted Angel

Duo slid to his feet. "I'm alright… tripped and fell through a window." He grunted through clenched teeth. He walked to the entrance wiping glass from his black shirt. Every now and then he told a student that he was okay, or not to laugh 'cause it might happen to them someday. Suddenly the doors to the Institution flung open, smashing Duo into the wall and almost breaking his nose.

Relena was furious. "Who smashed that window?!" As the door shut Duo stumbled out from behind it holding his nose, grumbling about the fall doing literally nothing but a door almost breaks his nose. "Duo Maxwell!"

"Yo! That'd be me." Duo said with a sarcastic tone to his voice. "Oh… that wasn't me." And with that he quickly slid into the doors and disappeared into the school.

* * * *

As the class started to fill in the next mornings Noin pulled all five pilots from their filings and took them to the hangar under the school. "Now as you know, or at least most of you know the mission briefings. There is reason to believe that OZ and the Romfeller foundation are staging an attack on Sanc."

"Blah, blah, blah. If you're doing this on my part then don't. I already know what's going on. Epyon and I can hold our grounds in battle. We haven't failed once." Lance retorted sharply glancing over watching the only other female in the room.

"I'm sorry that you had to listen to that then. Shall we get on with the sim training?"

"Okay. What setting will we be using? 10? 11?" Lance gave a sardonic smile to Noin.

"We won't be training. You will." Heero replied as coldly as ever.

"Fine, I'll use the Enhanced Zero System that the Epyon contains." Lance told the others.

He walked to the kneeling gundam that was the visage of an evil dragon. As the hatch opened he hopped upon the knee and then into the exposed cockpit. As he entered the mobile suit's eyes flickered and the hatch closed. Immediately a yellow light flashed on and the screen flickered.

--Enter Code_|--

In a swift agile movement the letters Z, E, R, and O appeared on the screen. Then the sim came online. He followed the movement patterns of his enemies and destroyed them as fast as he saw them.

On the radar screen Noin and the pilots watched in amazement as an entire screen of the small green blips disappeared. "How is that possible? There were at least seventy-five. And they all disappeared at the same time." Quatre said shocked. They watched as the count rose. Suddenly a second count appeared on the screen opposite that of the kill count that was steadily rising. "What is that count?" They stood dumbfounded looking at the second rate rising as steadily as the kill count. Then the counts stopped. The sim had ended. A record was being printed out. The second count had been a…

"A destruction rate!" Duo exclaimed. "His rate is close to the count. It is a perfect score aside from this rate. The gundam hissed as the cockpit opened. Lance stepped out as calmly as if he had spilt a small glass of water.

"Why are you people standing there catching flies? What, did I do?" Lance asked inquisitively seeing the pilots shocked look.

"No, no. Nothing was done wrong. A perfect score. But your destruction rate. It was incredibly high." Noin said softly.

* * * *

A small lithe figure slid down the darkened hallway. She was glad that no one had her go around. Give me a schematic of this floor, Bloodsickle. Show me Lance's room. She studied the map that was placed in her mind for the spilt second that it was there. "Right here." She pulled a set of lock picks from her breast pocket. As soon as they were out, she started tinkering on the door. Quickly, she unlocked the door and silently opened and closed the door.

As the girl closed the door someone walked by. She noticed the closing door and listened to what was going on in the room.

* * * *

The girl crept silently up behind Lance. He was sitting at his computer working on a schematic for the other Gundams that were in the hangar. Slowly, his hand moved to his hip, and eventually to his holster. He loosened the gun that was found in it and drew as he spun the chair around. "Sarah!" he said in a scolding voice, "Why are you here? Better yet how did you get here?"

"You know I don't go anywhere without you." She said.

She was wearing a small black tank top and leather jeans under a jean jacket. Her hair was red with blonde highlights. And she was considerably shorter the Lance.

"Of course. And now that you know where I am, you must leave." Lance said with a distinct tone in his voice.

"Uh! I come all this way for this! To be snuffed away?" Without warning Lance moved his hand to her mouth.

"Shush! Someone might hear you. And no one knows where you came from, and will be looked down upon by the pilots. There is already awkwardness with the fact that I pilot a gundam and am here." Lance whispered. "You must leave now!"

* * * *

"So, that's what's going on here. There are other gundam pilots in the midst of us that are not seen nor heard." The girl that stood at the door listening slid away silently.

* * * *

The next morning was very early for the pilots. An alarm went off early afternoon. Noin got the four gundam pilots ready for the on-coming battle. Lance slid quickly into Epyon. And as he did the same clear message came on the screen, and those same four letters were typed.

The roof of the room slid open and the first of the Gundams rose into the air and shot off into the direction of the attack. Shortly, each gundam rose and shot off after the last one at intervals of about three. Soon the last defenses were Noin and Quatre in a pair of Taurus.

* * * *

Epyon reached the point of interception. He watched as the carriers came closer in the distance. Suddenly the carriers opened in the distance. "Their about five minutes away from my point… wait Duo, Heero… get here now, ten carriers have unloaded their loads of Aries, Virgo, and Leos. Close to a hundred in total. Duo use your hyperjammer, Heero, fighter mode to get here, then we'll finish it at the battle point."

The comm crackled as Duo appeared on the screen. "Who made you boss?"

Then the young girl appeared on the screen. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You are…?"

"Arys Walker."

Oh…yes! The girl who thinks she's been in a sim for the last five years."

"How did you know that? I never told you anything." She exclaimed. The shocked look on her face told all.

"I like to keep up with who I work with. I am like another man that the other pilots know well. Zechs Marquis." Lance said with a sly tone. Then the face that was burned into the comm screens flashed black.