Noin met the three pilots at the colony's mobile suit hangar bay. She had come along with Quatre to find Trowa, hoping to find her own way of stopping the war.

"Hi, you guys. Your Gundams are flight-ready, Quatre and Duo." Noin noticed the tall, slender boy who was tagging along behind Quatre and Duo. "Is this your long-lost pilot?"

Quatre stepped forward and smiled at Noin. "This is Trowa Barton. Yes, he's a Gundam pilot, but he's lost his memory."

"Really?" Noin studied the circus performer thoughtfully. He hardly wavered beneath her piercing gaze. "Think you can handle a Taurus suit, Trowa?"

Trowa nodded.

"Okay, suit up."

While Quatre and Duo ran off to climb into their Gundams, Trowa followed Noin to the row of gleaming Taurus suits. Noin motioned to one of the suits.

"You can take that one on the end, Trowa."

"All right."

Trowa nimbly scrambled up the ladder to the Taurus suit's cockpit. With practiced ease, he swung into the pilot's seat, the cockpit hatch closing behind him. Noin's face appeared on the viewscreen in front of him.

"Trowa, follow me out. We're sticking to Quatre and Duo."

"Understood."

Trowa fired up the Taurus suit's engines. His body seemed to know what to do, but his mind was completely lost. Trowa shook his head. Why couldn't he remember? He wished he could. Quatre and Duo apparently cared a lot for him, and he repaid them with only polite words and nods. They were his friends not strangers.

Noin's suit next to him came to life and hovered forward. With a blast from its engines, the suit flew toward the opening cargo bay doors. Trowa followed Noin, and soon, they were heading for the Gundams' coordinates.

"Trowa, will you be all right?" It was Quatre.

Trowa gazed out into the space battlefield. His mind was already coming up with a strategy. He scanned the radar screen in front of him, noting the position of each enemy in his vicinity. His fingers worked around the levers clenched in his hands. He nodded. "I think I remember how to do this."

Noin's whispered comment drifted into Trowa's ears. "Just don't get yourself killed."

Trowa gave her a half-smile. "Don't worry. I won't." He throttled forward, heading straight for his first target.

Quatre followed, wanting to make sure that his friend didn't do anything rash. He needn't have worried. As Trowa's mobile suit flew off, the third Gundam pilot was already having his suit pull out its beam rifle. With a graceful swing, the Taurus aimed the rifle straight at a mobile doll and fired. The doll disappeared in the wash of energy and exploded. But Trowa was already gone, targeting the next enemy. Quatre nodded. He would keep a close eye on his friend, but he knew Trowa was capable of taking care of himself.

Trowa skimmed the dots jerking about on his radar screen. Instinctively, he pulled up on his flightstick, rolling the suit upward to come face to face with another Virgo. He fired his rifle. One shot, one kill. Trowa turned the suit around to fire another killing shot at a Virgo approaching him from behind. The mobile doll crumpled into a piece of useless scrap metal then exploded into a brilliant ball of flame.

One after another Trowa took out the mobile dolls. He did it almost automatically. And all with his one beam rifle.

____________

"What are you doing to it?" Arys asked the five professors situated on various parts of her Gundam. There was a skeptical look on her face. To her, the Silverwind currently looked like a piece of junk. Wires hung from every hole that was possible on the Gundam's armor. Its hands hung loosely at the wrists and two metal boxes teetered on top of them. The Silverwind's 'wings' were completely gone, replaced by a frame that looked suspiciously similar to the form of feathered angel wings.

"What does it look like we're doing?" One of the professor's replied. Arys still hadn't figured out all their names. They all looked slightly crazy to her. But they were fixing her Gundam, so Arys tried to be semi-polite to them. Of course, she had had to convince them to repair her Gundam under the barrel of her gun.

Arys looked up at the professor who had spoken to her. Doctor J, she thought. "Well, it looks like you're turning my Gundam into a candidate for the scrap yard." She tried to soften the words with what she hoped was a teasing smile. She didn't realize that her "teasing smile" came across to them as a threat to take their lives if they didn't give her a good reason for her Gundam's appearance.

"We're upgrading it."

"Oh, really?" Arys' smile vanished. "And just how are you 'upgrading' it?"

Doctor J waved to the frames on the Gundam's back. "We're replacing the normal engines with 'wings', real wings. And then in the hands, we're installing a weapon we're calling the beam emitter. It's quite a handy weapon. You don't have to carry anything around. Just raise the hands and voila, instant close-range buster rifle."

Arys still looked dubious. "How long until you're finished?"

Doctor J flourished the portable welder in his 'claw'. "I'd say about a week more."

"That's the earliest?"

Doctor J looked slightly irritated. "Child, if you don't want this Gundam blowing up with you in it, I'd suggest you be patient."

Arys waved off the scolding. "One week. No more, no less." She walked away, tapping something behind her ear as she did so.

"It'll be done," Doctor J replied.

"It'd better be," Arys whispered under her breath.

Silverwind, give me a daily status report on your rebuilding.

Understood.

_____________

Arys made her way to the Libra's control bridge. The space fortress was huge, but Arys felt right at home. She had memorized the fortress' blueprints as soon as she had arrived. The battle for Libra had been nothing short of spectacular. Arys was disappointed though that she'd had to pilot a Leo suit instead of her Gundam.

"People of Earth and the colonies…"

Arys perked up when she heard Zechs' voice over the fortress intercom. He was finally making his announcement. Arys tapped her transmitter.

Record this transmission, Silverwind.

While the professors were away from her Gundam, Arys had climbed into the cockpit and programmed part of the mobile suit's computer to remain active at all times. This enabled her to communicate with Silverwind anytime, even when the professors were busy tearing it apart.

"I am Milliardo Peacecraft, leader of the White Fang. We are an organization that will fight for the total independence of the colonies. The Earth and the colonies cannot peacefully coexist. Therefore, Earth must be destroyed in order for the colonies to receive their full independence. All resistance will be annihilated."

Arys listened as Zechs spoke. He was not as eloquent as his sister, but he had gotten his point across.

Arys smiled grimly. "The war has begun."

____________

One week later…

"Enemy threat approaching…" The warning repeated over and over as Arys burst into the room where her Gundam was stored.

The doctors had finished rebuilding the Silverwind only yesterday. They had insisted that she rename her Gundam, and when Arys had seen it completed, she agreed. As soon as she had seen it, a perfect name had popped into her head.

"Archangel..."

The Gundam's silvery eyes lit up when she spoke.

Hello, Arys.

Arys smiled and climbed up the ladder to her Gundam's cockpit.

Time to take you out for your first battle, Archangel.

Understood.

Duke Dermail was approaching the Libra with a small assault force. Arys almost laughed at the sight of it as she left the cargo bay with a group of Taurus and Virgo suits. He thought he could defeat their army with that tiny assault force? No one could take the space fortress with so little power.

"Arys, go for the transport." Zechs' voice told her through her personal intercom.

Arys keyed the transport's position into her threat indicator. Her entire being focused on destroying that transport.

"Understood." Arys pushed forward on her throttle.

_____________

Duke Dermail looked out the window of the transport. He had confidence in the assault force he had brought with him. Nonetheless, a premonition nagged at the back of his mind.

Today you will die.

The duke shook off the strange feeling and turned away from the window.

"What is the status of the battle?" He asked a passing Romefeller soldier.

The soldier looked a little worried. "Duke Dermail, their forces are very strong. We're having some problems."

"That's not possible!"

The soldier nodded firmly. "It might be best if we retreat, sir."

"Retreat? Never!"

The soldier's eyes suddenly focused on something beyond him. His eyes widened with horror. The duke realized that the soldier was staring out the window.

"What are you looking...?" Duke Dermail turned back to the window.

"A...a Gundam, sir. Like one I've never seen." The soldier's voice was quiet with dread. "It's heading straight for us." He straightened up and ran to the front of the transport, shouting as he did so, "Evasive maneuvers! Get this transport moving!"

The duke glared out the window at the approaching mobile suit. It was majestic-looking, but at the same time, carried a deadly air about it. The soldier was right; it was like no mobile suit he had ever seen. The silvery wings seemed to beat out the tune to his funeral dirge. He could almost hear the mournful sound. He watched in seeming slow motion as the Gundam hovered a few kilometers away, its eyes glowing silver. It followed their transport effortlessly as they tried to escape. A gun came up on its right shoulder, and Dermail found himself staring at the barrel of a Shiv rifle.

An avenging angel. Dermail suddenly felt sorry for what he had done. All the people he had killed. The dirge in his head began to ring, and Dermail bowed his head, turning away from the window. The Gundam fired. And half-moon discs sped straight for the transport, slicing the shuttle in half.

The last thing Dermail felt was a searing heat that consumed everything in its path. And the transport disintegrated to pieces around him.

____________

Arys stared at the exploding transport, her eyes glowing yellow. She was fascinated by the boiling clouds of yellow and orange. In the midst of the explosion, she could see the form of the transport. The form quickly disappeared as the transport deteriorated to pieces of shrapnel. A memory leaped to her mind. Her parents. The day she had killed her parents.

"Mom? Dad?" Arys whispered as she pulled back on her flightstick. Their faces were superimposed over the billowing clouds.

They're dead, Arys. A voice seemed to say in her head.

"No!" Arys leaned forward, holding her head in her hands as pain ripped through her.

And with that memory, flowed hundreds of others. And suddenly, Arys remembered. All that she had been while working for Oz. And she hated it. Hated herself. Hated her life. Arys pulled off her helmet and began to sob uncontrollably. She threw her helmet to the floor. Tears fell onto the computer console and rolled to the floor.

"Arys!" Zechs' voice thundered into her cockpit. "What are you doing?"

Arys did not hear him. All she could see and hear were the faces and the voices of those she had murdered. Most had been innocent, but some, like Duke Dermail, had not. Still, she had taken human lives.

"I'm a killer. I deserve to die."

She slammed her fist onto the console. The console lit up with red warning lights. "I even killed my own parents!"

How could anyone do such a thing, Arys Walker? Only someone like you could.

"Stop, please stop," Arys begged.

You have no right to be alive. You've just killed again. How many more innocent people will suffer because of you?

The question brought the assassin's face to her mind. Now, she remembered him. Heero Yuy. The boy she had fallen in love with and then had almost died for off the shores of the Cinq Kingdom. He had told her that he still loved her. Arys looked up, her gaze scanning the glowing screens in front of her.

"I saved him."

Don't be silly, Arys. You should be dead. You're still alive and now you will cause his death.

"I won't listen to you! Leave me alone!" Arys put her hands over her ears. Who owned this voice that kept mocking her? Telling her to die, that she was worthless.

You must listen to me, Arys.

"No!" Arys sat up and placed her hands over the flightsticks. "I don't have to listen to you, whoever you are!"

She pushed her flightsticks forward, determined to beat down every mobile doll until the voice ceased.

I am a shadow of yourself, Arys. I will never go away.

Arys slashed at two mobile dolls with her beam sabers. They fell backwards, each cleaved in half. They disappeared in a volatile wash of energy, but Arys could hardly see it through the blur in her eyes. She raced to the next target.

"Feel nothing during a battle, Arys. It is the only way you can survive." Zechs' voice echoed through her mind. She struggled to fight the emotions threatening to consume her.

Three mobile dolls came at her, their planetary defensors raised. Arys ignored the shield generators and activated her beam saber. She dove into the trio of enemies and methodically took out the shielding. With a final slice, she destroyed all three dolls in one arc.

But the emotional whirlwind still beat at her, breaking down her defenses, and the tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

______________

Dorothy watched from the Romefeller Foundation headquarters as her grandfather's shuttle exploded. With a gasp, she put a hand to her mouth.

"Grandfather!"

He had been the only relative she had left. Now, he was gone. Dorothy fought back sudden tears. No family. Dorothy was officially an orphan.

The rest of the officers in the room were just as aghast as she was. With her grandfather's death, the leadership of the Romefeller Foundation would fall apart. Then, Dorothy suddenly remembered. She had told her grandfather to try to retake Libra, even though she had known it would be impossible with the amount of firepower White Fang harbored.

"Hmm..." Already, Dorothy was thinking of a way to use this situation to her advantage.

She quietly left the room as the officers argued amongst themselves.

Stupid, incompetent fools. They have no idea what they're doing.

Dorothy decided to take a shuttle to Libra herself, but not to attack it.

"I wonder if Zechs could use another White Fang member." Dorothy smirked as she headed down the hallway.

_____________

Relena Peacecraft stood at the window, staring at the flawless blue sky that hid a vicious space battle going on at one of the colonies.

"Heero..." She sighed his name. She often found herself doing that, whenever she wondered where he was. Relena shook her head. But she had seen the way Arys and Heero "clicked" back at the Cinq Kingdom Institution. She had to fight back the jealousy, wishing she had been in Arys' place. But in the back of her mind, Relena knew that it would never have worked out. Heero was too much of a wanderer, too used to having no ties to anybody. His only weakness had been finding himself in Arys. She had been just as lost as he was, just as confused, and just as distant. Relena was a politician. She had too many ties to people. Everyone knew who she was. And she knew exactly what she wanted. Peace without war. That goal was something Heero and Arys respected but had never understood.

The door to the room slowly swung open, creaking a bit on old-fashioned hinges.

Relena turned around, coming face to face with Treize Kushrenada. He still looked the same, blue eyes, blonde hair, calculating expression on his face, and that annoying half-smile he always seemed to wear.

"Miss Relena Peacecraft, have you heard?" Treize asked her, his face betraying nothing of what he was feeling.

"What are you talking about?"

Treize came forward, standing on the other side of the table separating them. He leaned on one of the chairs casually. "Duke Dermail was just killed by White Fang forces."

"Oh, Milliardo..." Relena whispered.

"A new Gundam sliced his transport to ribbons. We have no data on it anywhere."

"You didn't come here to tell me about Duke Dermail's death," Relena stated flatly.

"On the contrary, Miss Peacecraft." Treize fingered one of the silk flowers in the table centerpiece. "Duke Dermail's death has very much to do with what I've come to tell you."

Relena waited patiently for him to continue. Treize straightened to his full height and gave her a sympathetic look. "The duke's death has thrown the Romefeller Foundation leadership into a frenzy. They need someone to take Dermail's place. And, my dear, I'm afraid that won't be you."

"What are you telling me?"

Treize smiled. "I'm going to step back into my role as leader of the Romefeller Foundation and in turn the 'World Nation' Duke Dermail established. I'm going to have to depose you from your position as Queen, Miss Peacecraft. Your relationship to Milliardo would be detrimental to my leadership."

Relena nodded. "I understand." She reached up to the tiara on her head and carefully took it off. She came around the table and handed it to Treize. "Take it, Treize. I no longer have need of it." She left the room without a glance back.

Treize looked down at the tiara in his hand. He glanced at the open door. "Where will you go, Relena Peacecraft? To your brother?" Even though he knew Relena could no longer hear him, he continued, "Tell him that I understand why he must fight. I'm fighting for the same reason."

Treize threw the tiara to the ground. It bounced once and lay still, the gems inlaid on the crown sparkled at him. Treize walked to the window and studied the blue sky intently.

"May the best man win, my friend."

______________

Author's notes: Wow! Talk about an intense chapter! Well, maybe it wasn't too intense for you readers, but it sure was for this author. Hope you all like the story so far. I'm in the dark as much as you all are about what's going to happen. These characters have minds of their own!