By Melissa

“You know it’s a trap, right?” Meela said.

Colonel Une nodded. “Yes it’s a trap, but what other choice do we have?” She looked kind of hopeless.

“Never say what other choice do we have,” Wufei said. All the pilots were in the conference room with Colonel Une.

“Well she’s right,” Arys said. “We can’t let them have Relena, they’ll kill her.”

“We could leave them there,” Wufei said.

Meela glared at him. “Leave Relena there and risk loosing a pacifist leader. Leave Quatre there, you risk loosing a good pilot, and friend.”

“We’re not going to leave them there,” the colonel said. “We’ll just have to be very careful with our rescue operation.”

Meela sighed. “We have to face the facts. All they want is me. That was the point of capturing Quatre.”

Colonel Une sat down and put her head in her hands. It wasn’t often that you saw her look defeated. “I don’t know what to do. It’s as simple as that. They’re plan is so bizarre I can’t tell what they’ll do next.”

“You’ve got that right,” Duo said. He was twirling a pencil in his fingers. “All we have to figure out is what Relena’s move is going to be.”

Meela snorted. “And how do we do that?”

Heero spoke for the first time. “She will do what she thinks best for the colonies.”

“And what would that be?” Wufei snapped.

“Calm down.” Arys said. “Okay a general outline of what the Une foundation is trying to do. They want the colonies destroyed because they support The Preventers and the Gundams more than they do the Une Foundation. Now, they want the people from the colonies to go back to Earth, but the colonists might not want to go, so they need Relena to tell the colonists what’s best. But Relena wouldn’t want to do that so they make her a deal. Either you get the people off the colonies or we’ll destroy the colonies with the people on them and then kill you. So Relena would go with getting the people off the colonies and on to Earth. That would be avoiding bloodshed.”

“Right. Only we can’t allow her to do that.”

“If she decides that, she might have to be eliminated,” Wufei said calmly.

Meela rubbed her head. “No she won’t. We’ll just have to stop the foundation from moving the people.”

“If we were going to eliminate her, we would have needed do it a long time ago,” Trowa stated calmly.

“No one is going to eliminate anyone just yet,” Colonel Une said. “Arys, I need you to hack into the Une Foundations network and find out as much as you can before we make any decisions. Dismissed.”

Arys nodded. She stood and glanced at Meela. “I could use your help.”

Meela shrugged. “Sure.”

Arys frowned as she skimmed the passage. When she found what she needed she stopped. “Hey Meela. Come over here.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s some new suits. Made of Gundanium Alloy. Whoa.”

“Hmm. They went the extra mile on these. Scorpio's, Gemini, Knights, Firestorms. That's three hundred of each. Uh oh. That is really not good.”

“Heh, no kidding.” Suddenly Arys’ screen went blank. The words ‘Naughty naughty naughty’ appeared on the screen.

“Marie.” Meela said angrily.

“Well, I guess I didn’t cover my tracks as well as I thought.”

“Lets go tell the colonel.”

“Relena Peacecraft. It’s good to see you again. I trust you have recovered from our last little, chat.”

Relena looked up.

“I have brought a guest that might interest you.”

Relena heard the door open and a shape was shoved in. Relena squinted. “Quatre?”

“Yes that’s him alright.” Marie said smiling at Quatre. “So nice of you to join us Mr. Winner.”

Quatre glared at her Marie then turned to Relena. “Are you alright Miss Relena?”

“I’m fine.”

“Alright Miss Relena. We’ve gone over our little deal, but Mr. Winner is completely in the dark, so lets fill him in, shall we? Alright; we need the colonists off the colonies so we can destroy them. However, people wouldn’t like that so we need someone influential like Miss Relena to make sure everybody thinks it’s the best thing and that we are the best thing. You see, it’s kind of like campaigning, you make the Une Foundation look good and we don’t kill you and your little friend. But if you say no, we’ll be forced to destroy the colony with the people on it and kill you and Mr. Winner.”

“If I’m not mistaken, destroying the colonies with the colonists on them would make you look bad,” Quatre said standing up.

She sighed. “Yes most likely it will. There is always blame. People are like sheep. They believe what you tell them and when one starts to go one way, all the others follow.”

“That is amazingly shallow. Your betting everything on how dumb the people are. What if they’re not? Yes maybe they are like sheep, but there will be ones who stand up and protest.”

Marie laughed. “Very nice little speech Miss Relena.” She went over and slapped her across the cheek. “However, I will not allow your deceitful words in here. Do you understand?”

Relena glared at her but stayed silent. Marie walked around Relena’s chair.

“Quatre, you know of Miss Meela’s little problem?”

“You being able to control her using the Zero system.”

“Very good! Yes. She is also part of my plan. The Une Foundation is too kind. They want to get the people out of the colonies before destroying them. They forget that the colonies are responsible for the Gundam’s being made. The Gundam's being the most infuriating problem in the world. So I created something that could get rid of the Gundams. But I guess I did not train her hard enough, and she left, but I find that I can still control her but she fights and that makes for a very unpleasant experience. So I make it so she can’t fight me. Do you know how I did that Quatre?”

He stayed silent.

“So you don’t. Well, when I imbedded the Zero system in her brain, it wasn’t strong enough. So what do you do? Make it stronger.”

Quatre looked up shocked.

“Yes, you’re catching on. The Zero system is now installed in Meela’s Gundam so when it comes on, her mind gets overloaded with information, and she falls under my control.” Marie smiled wildly. “Yes Miss Relena. She can beat you boyfriend Heero Yuy. I trained her especially for him. Now I’ll leave you two to talk over your answer. I will return in one hour.”

When the door had closed. Relena raised her head to look at Quatre. “We need to go with their plan. The colonists will just have to understand.” She paused. “Is it true what she said about Meela?”

“To my knowledge, yes. When Meela is controlled by the system in her mind, she is very powerful. But with both, it might drive her insane. Unable to think, just do.”

Relena stood up and walked over to the window. It gave her a clear view of a colony. “All those people,” she murmured.

Noin glared at Duo. “She will not give up!”

Duo grinned crookedly. “Face it Noin. Relena wants peace too much. She’ll take the easiest way towards peace and that's not always the best way.” The pilots, Zechs and Colonel Une were back in the conference room. It wasn’t going well. This had been going on for two hours.

“Relena will get the people off the colonies using the most peaceful solution. We’ve figured that out. Now all we need is a plan and you two are not helping.” Meela snapped at both Noin and Duo.

“She’s most likely on the new ship Libra II. But the defenses are too high over there. We need to wait until they make the move to get the people off the colonies, then capture the carriers, and destroy Libra. It’s as simple as that.” Colonel Une supplied.

“As simple as that huh? You tell that to my Gundam when it gets a hole blown through it.” Duo muttered.

The colonel turned to Duo and sighed. “Everyone get some sleep and we’ll wait for them to make their move. Dismissed.”

Meela stood stiffly and walked out of the room. She headed towards her room but changed her course and went to the lounge. When she stepped in she saw Duo standing at the pop machine. When the pop came out, he started shaking it with an evil look on his face.

He set the pop in front of Arys. “Here you go. Cherry Coke as requested.” He looked at Meela and put a finger to his lips. Meela shrugged.

“Thanks Duo.” Arys said and opened the pop. The pop sprayed out and hit Arys in the face. She jumped up, dripping wet. Duo was laughing hysterically.

She looked at him. “You think that was funny?”

He nodded, still laughing.

“Come here Duo. I want to look at your braid for a second.”

He shook his head and backed away. “No way.”

“No, I won’t do anything. Let me just look for a second.” Suddenly she dove at him, twisting him around and getting him in a headlock.

“Ahhh! Meela, help, she’s gonna kill me!” he yelled, trying to twist away.

Arys grabbed the end of his braid and pulled out the clasp then proceeded to dump the rest of her pop over his head.

“Ahhh, no!” he broke away from her grasp. “My hair! My beautiful hair! Do you know how long it takes to braid?!”

Meela held back a laugh. He looked pretty funny with his hair down. Arys grinned and tossed his clasp at him. “Don’t mess with me,” she said with a laugh. Duo shook his head and left.

Meela raised an eyebrow at Arys. “That’s a new one. I’ve never thought of taking his hair down.”

Arys grabbed her jacket and started drying her hair. “It was a tempting target from when I first saw it.”

Noin came in. “Meela, what did you do to Duo. He had his hair down.”

“It wasn’t me.” Meela nodded at Arys. “She did it.”

Noin sat down. “Well, good job,” she said to Arys.

“Thank you.”

“What’s up Noin?” Meela said.

“Not much. I can’t sleep, so I thought I’d come down here. Other than torturing Duo, what are you two doing?”

“Not much,” Meela said.

The three women sat in silence for awhile. Then Noin cleared her throat and said. “Meela, did you know that Quatre had a cat?”

Meela looked up. “No I didn’t. He has a cat?”

“Yeah. I went into his quarters for a book and found the cat. Its name is Duo.” She grinned.

Meela rolled her eyes. “What are you going to do with it?’

“Trowa’s taking care of it.”

“Hmm.” They lapsed into silence again.

Noin stood. “Well Arys, thank you and it’s good to have met you. Meela.” She left.

“Well,” Meela said. “I’m going too.”

“Wait,” Arys said. She put up her tray and followed Meela out of the lounge.

“Miss Slogan, we want no bloodshed. Do you hear me? The colonies will not be destroyed with the people on them if Miss Relena doesn’t help us. We will just have to find another way.”

“But Mr. Une. She will not comply if you don’t make some sort of threat. I had to.”

“Your giving yourself to much freedom. You captured the Gundam pilot giving the Preventers reason to attack us with full force! We don’t have the recourses to fight them just yet.”

“Yes we do sir. The new mobile suits. They are all functional and can beat the Gundams, Especially since we have the girl.”

“Phaah! The girl is not anything I am excited about since you have yet to control her. The new mobile suits have not even been tested yet. Who knows if they will work!”

“Sir, they all preform perfectly in the simulations.”

“In a sim and in real life are a completely different matter.”

“But we have a Zero system for controling them. And the controlers completely merciless and extremely good. They will be unstoppable!”

“We shall see about that. Dismissed.”

Marie left. She turned the corner and went over to a man in uniform.

“There will be a change of plans Trant. The Foundation is getting to suspicious. We’ll have to destroy the Libra II a little earlier than we hoped. Take Relena and the pilot to the Obselisc.”

“Of course.” He said smiling.

“Miss Relena. Do you have your answer?”

“Take the colonists off the colonies. I’ll will try to handle whatever complaints they have.”

“That is very good, but we still need you for a little longer. Trant will come for you in a little while,” Marie said. She tipped her head and left.

“What?” Relena said.

Quatre frowned. “Why are they moving us?”

Relena shook her head.

A man stepped in. “Come with me please.”

They followed him to a shuttle. They waited for a few minuets. Then Marie came in. “Go,” she said to the man.

They blew out of the bay and flew away just as the huge battleship exploded.

Relena gasped in horror. “What?”

Marie sighed. “They were getting suspicious. I had to shut them up.”

Relena just looked at the destruction of the ship.

“When I was six, I was drafted for Operation Meteor. I was trained for roughly six years, but I was behind some of the boys, so it was scrapped and the five Gundams were sent to Earth without me. I was thrown out, and lived on the streets, then Marie Slogan found me. I was trained for... I don’t know how long then when she thought I was strong enough, she started with the Zero System. I was trained to have no soul. Merciless. I was always cold until I learned to deal with it. Then I found out what she was training me to do, and I took my Gundam and left.”

Arys stared at Meela. They were walking around the halls hearing about each others past.

“Um sorry.”

Meela just stared straight in front of her. “So what about you?”

“Well I’m not sure how old I was when I ran away from home to become a soldier. They laughed at me, so I left and trained with a man named Assilem Jhonre. When I went back, they gave me three tests. I had to destroy five selected targets, maneuver through a mine field, and fight one of their best pilots. I passed all of them easily and was soon the best. I was known as The Lightning Count’s little star, because Zechs favored me. I kind of lost myself for awhile, fighting. I went up against you pilots many times. That was kind of my goal. To defeat the Gundams.” She shook her head. “By the wars end, I had still not fulfilled my goal, so I thought I was weak, but I was tired of fighting, so I left. And you know the rest.”

Meela stayed silent for a while. “We are very much alike Arys.”

“Yeah, I guess we are. You were almost driven mad by the Zero System, and I by my goal.” She smiled sadly. “One with green eyes, one with gray.”

Meela laughed softly. Arys frowned thoughtfuly. “I read about you in the paper. The kid that caused a five year search before your parents gave it up.”

Meela nodded. “They thought I was dead but there I was on the same colony with them.” She looked angry. “And I couldn’t do anything.”

“Why did they pick you for Operation Meteor?”

Meela laughed harshly. “Played different in the sand box than the rest of the kids. I don’t know.”

“Yeah...” She was interrupted, by Meela falling to her knees gasping for breath.

“Meela!” She knelt on one knee by the fallen girl. Meela looked up her green eyes filled with pain. Then she stood up and shook her head.

“I have more to tell you Arys. I should have told you before but...”

Arys frowned. “What happened?”

“Come on,” Meela said. She took a deep breath. “When I was trained...”