The Lone Warrior

chapter 6

by Melissa

Arys stopped in mid swing. A light in her cockpit was blinking crazily. She frowned. Then realized.

“They’re firing the cannon! Get out of here!” she yelled.

Engines lit up as the Gundam’s pulled hurriedly out of the way. Suddenly, the mobile dolls blocked their path.

Arys slashed but the mobile doll dodged and got in her way once again. She glanced up at the Obselisc’s beam cannon as it began to glow brightly, powering up for the blast. She pushed hard against the dolls, but they pushed back with superior numbers, hemming her in. She glanced desperately around. The others were having similar difficulties. They were all in the line of sight of the cannon. Suddenly the thick beam shot towards them. Arys set her jaw and braced for incineration. Seconds from hitting her, the beam suddenly slit open, as if on an invisible wedge. The mobile dolls around them were wiped out. In one majestic ripple, the Peacemillion decloaked in front of them, its armor blackened from the blast. Howard’s face appeared on Arys’ screen.

“I suggest you disable that beam cannon,” he said. “The armor can’t take another hit like that.”

Arys grinned. “Roger that. Thanks Howard.”

Meela yanked her scythe back then struck again. So far Marie had been able to dodge all of her attacks.

“I know all of your moves Meela. I taught them to you. It’s useless to fight me. Why not just give up and join me?”

Meela could feel her anger rising, and she struggled to control it.

Calm down. Meela said to herself. Just use different moves.

Meela backed off and waited for Marie to attack her. The attack came slower than she expected and Meela was easily able to block Marie’s move. This puzzled Meela. Marie’s Gundam was a little bit more powerful than Deathwing yet Marie didn’t use all that power.

Suddenly Marie charged at Meela. When she reached Meela, Marie pulled up and deployed spikes on Aria’s foot and kicked at Deathwing.

Meela yanked her joystick back barely escaping the spiked foot. But Marie didn’t give her time to retaliate. She pulled out a beam saber and charged once again at Deathwing.

“Lets get this party started Miss Rumsey.” Marie said.

Meela pulled out her scythe just in time to block Marie’s saber.

“Gladly.” Meela said. She pulled back and swung Deathwing around to the back of Aria and slashed at the Gundam. Marie reached back to block Deathwing, but the black Gundam was not there, but now in front of her.

Meela pulled out a throwing disk and threw it point blank range at Aria’s face. The Gundam jerked backwards at Marie’s command and brought the shield up to hit the disk aside.

“Very nice Meela. But why don’t you use the ZERO system? You just might be able to beat me.”

“I don’t because I can beat you without it.”

Marie smirked. “Brave words. But you do know you’re going to die, right?”

“Shut up and fight!” Meela yelled throwing three more disks at Aria.

“You need to get close to the Obselisc and drain the energy from the cannon. I am going to attach a Durafuel to a Taurus suit. I need at least two Gundam’s to escort it there, and the Durafuel on the Taurus should do the trick.” Colonel Une said.

“Should?” Duo said. “I don’t like should.”

“Well Mr. Maxwell, should will have to do for now. I can’t promise anything.”

“While we’re over there, shouldn’t we get Relena and Quatre?” Duo asked.

“We can’t get into the ship. The security is.... tight.”

“That's an understatement.” Noin muttered. “We’re going to have trouble even getting remotely close to the ship.”

“What about Meela?” Heero asked quietly.

“Lieutenant Rumsey has her own battle to fight. I believe that if we leave the Vice Foreign Minister and Mr. Winner on the ship, she can recover them.” Colonel Une said. The tone of her voice said not to discuss it further.

Duo shrugged. “Who’s the Taurus pilot?”

Colonel Une nodded to a boy that was standing in one corner. “This is Carter Lassen. He will be piloting the Taurus the will carry the Durafuel. He is an excellent pilot.”

Carter saluted them. Heero nodded to him and Duo did a little fake salute.

“Alright. Who is going to escort the Taurus to the Obselisc?”

Immediately, Trowa said. “I’ll go.” Then he stood up and left the room.

Duo grinned evilly. “I know who he wants to see.”

“Duo and I will go.” Arys said.

“Hey what! I didn’t...” He stopped because at that moment Arys had elbowed him in the side.

Colonel Une cocked her head to one side. Then shrugged. “Fine.” Then she picked up her papers and left the room.

Marie looked at the black Gundam. She closed her eyes in the lapse from the fighting. She wondered what Meela was thinking.

Meela took her hands from the controls and looked at them. Then dropped them on her lap and leaned her head back against the seat for a second, then sat up, her eyes emotionless and gripped the controls once more.

“I am going to defeat you Marie. At whatever cost, I will defeat you.”

The voice that came over Marie’s speakers was completely void of emotion to anybody else, but Marie could hear a hint of weariness in the voice.

“I think that you have already paid a cost. Didn’t you?”

Meela charged the silver Gundam. She brought her scythe out and separated it into two parts. The two suits hit hard and stayed locked together for a few seconds, then they backed off, but charged each other again.

Marie poked at Deathwing with her beam saber. Meela dodged the attacks. All her attention was focused on the fight. Suddenly the silver Gundam backed off, then came at Deathwing with incredible speed. It turned its shoulder to Deathwing and rammed Meela into the Obselisc.

Aria kept Deathwing pinned to the huge white ship. Marie grinned insanely and laughed.

“This is what it’s all about Meela!” She yelled.

“Really. That's interesting. Because I thought you said it was all about the colonies being blown up and me trying to stop you and then us fighting and someone winning.” Meela’s voice was full of disdain and Marie could almost see her smirking.

Suddenly, Deathwing’s arm wrenched itself out of the other Gundams hold, and it grabbed Aria’s face squeezing hard.

Marie jerked back just a little and Meela was able to get Deathwing’s leg between her and Aria. She straightened the leg and threw Aria back while lighting up her engines and scorching the silver Gundam. Meela slammed hard back into the Obselisc and Deathwing shuttered like it would fall apart.

“Oh man, I’m going to feel that tomorrow,” Meela groaned.

She redirected the thrust of her engines and shot upwards as Marie recovered and drove in with her beam saber. It penetrated the white hull of the Obselisc, cutting a gash three meters long. Bodies and equipment were sucked into space. Marie seemed not to notice as a crewman smashed against her Gundam. She kept rushing towards Deathwing. Meela slashed down with one scythe and up with the other. Marie blocked with her saber and shield and twisted around to strike from the side. Meela dodged backwards and fired the Vulcan's at her head. Marie raised her shield and as the bullets hit it smoke billowed out, obscuring Meela’s view. She cursed and instinctively dodged as something shot from the smoke. It was a dragon arm like Nataku’s, but with a deadly energy beam protruding from the end.

Marie laughed. “Good instincts. What do you think of that one?”

“You’re just full of pleasant surprises,” she responded and slashed at the arm. It buckled, but didn’t break. Marie had thought to reinforce the armor in that section. She struck again with the arm. Meela jerked sideways, dropped one scythe and grabbed the arm. She yanked hard on the control stick and dragged Aria towards her. She positioned her other scythe up against the silver Gundam’s cockpit and held it there. Marie gave a low chuckle.

“Well done. Maybe you did learn something from me, eh?” She laughed insanely and Meela rammed her scythe forward. The laughter died in a burst of static.

Meela pulled her scythe slowly back and sighed.

“Well, that was fun.”

She looked at the wreckage of Aria and shook her head. “You were original Marie, I’ll say that for you.”

She turned Deathwing and flew off towards the incoming Gundams.

“Meela! Hey how's it goin’?” Duo exclaimed.

“Pretty good Duo. Pretty good.”

Arys filled Meela in on what they were doing.

“ I’ll go in, get Quatre and Relena, and get out of there. And you guys get the cannons energy drained so they can’t fire on us while we’re doing this.”

Arys nodded. “That's good.” The neared the Obselisc and Meela broke off from the others while they continued to provide protection for the Taurus.

Meela jumped out of Deathwing and landed with a soft thud. She looked around with her gun out, still in a crouched position. Seeing no one she stood up and put her gun back in it’s holster on her flight suit.

She walked down the halls finding the ship strangely deserted. It was creepy Meela had to admit to herself. Every footstep made a strange echo sound.

Finally, Meela found a computer and started to type, looking for where Relena and Quatre were. As she looked, she found a problem.

Meela quickly left and ran down the hall looking for the rooms that the computer had said Relena and Quatre were. She wasn’t sure if this was the right lead because it had only said “Prisoners” but it was a lead.

She stopped at a door and looked at the number.

Meela typed an access code in the door and it slid easily open. As soon as the door was open, bullets began whizzing by her. Meela dove to the side and brought out her gun. Just as someone ran past her Meela stuck out her foot and the person fell over. She dodged out of the way and brought her gun up to his head just as he brought his up to her head.

Meela frowned. “Quatre!” She said. “Jeez, you coulda killed me!”

“Meela?” He laughed. “What are you doing here?”

“Well I was going to rescue you but I think I changed my mind.” She said looking at the bullet holes in the ground near her head.

He laughed, the stood up. “Hey Trant! It’s okay, bring Relena out here!”

Two forms came out of the room. Relena seeing Meela smiled at the girl. Meela nodded back then turned her attention to Quatre.

A man came up on Quatre’s left. “Meela, this is Trant. He is going to help us get out of here.”

“Well, whatever we do, we need to do it fast. They have the self destruct activated. We had about twenty minuets left about ten minutes ago.”

Trant’s eyes widened. That left them ten minuets. The girl seemed completely calm as she told them that they were going to be blown into complete oblivion in less that ten minuets.

“Well then, we had better hurry.” Relena said.

Meela turned around and really looked at her. She was wearing a flight suit that was completely black and she had her long hair up in a pony tail. Meela’s eyes widened. Relena walked over to a compartment and opened it. She pulled a gun out of it and nodded to Meela.

Relena nodded to Trant to go in front. Then she followed.

“What is the matter with her?” Meela whispered to Quatre.

“She’s mad.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Meela went up to the front with Relena and Trant. Meela suddenly stopped.

“Shhhh.” She said to them. She peered around a corner then yanked her head back quickly and flattened herself against the wall. She pulled out her gun and motioned the others to the wall beside her.

“There’s about twenty guards standing by the hanger door.”

“If the self destruct is on why would they still be here?”

Meela shook her head then peered around the corner again. She brought something out of her holster. It was a silencer. She put it on her gun. She looked over a Trant who nodded to her and stepped up and put his silencer an his gun.

Meela suddenly stepped out from the corner and fired one shot hitting the man closest to them. He crumpled silently but someone still saw.

“Hey!” He yelled and started firing at the same time Relena, Quatre and Trant started firing taking out most everyone they hit.

Relena was shooting too but she was hitting the guards in the leg, disabling them and then taking their guns.

Suddenly an alarm sounded.

“Five minuests until self destruct. This is the last warning.”

Meela looked around and sighed. “Is there a computer near here Trant?”

He looked at Quatre then answered. “Not very close. The only one that can stop the self destruct is on the bridge. If you ran you could get there in about...”

“Where is it?”

“You go up the main hall and its there on the left, but it would be better if I would go.”

Meela put her gun back in it’s holster and ran down the hall.

Quatre watched her for a second. “Alright, come on lets go. Miss Relena, can you pilot a Taurus?”

“One of the many things I have learned recently.” Relena said going through the door to the hanger.

Meela ran through the hall. It was taking to long. She didn’t know how long they had. She skidded to a stop by a door and ran in but there was already someone there.

“Trowa? What...”

“We have thirty seconds more. I couldn’t shut it off but this gives us more time.”

She joined him at the panel. “I guess you didn’t need to take out the cannon after all.”

“No. I contacted them and told them to get away from the ship.” He pressed a final button. The screen flashed rapidly for a few seconds and the numbers jumped randomly around before settling on two minutes. “Come on. I’ve set up security doors to keep people from the docking bay.”

She followed him out and they ran rapidly down the halls until they came to the docking bay doors. They opened and they ran through. The three Taurus’ were already positioned to launch. Meela quickly jumped in the low gravity to the open cockpit door of Deathwing and quickly buckled herself in.

“One minute,” Trant said. “Everyone secure?” They all responded yes. “Opening the bay doors.”

The huge doors began to slide slowly opened. Meela urged them to hurry up. Before they were fully opened, Relena’s suit shot through the opening, followed quickly by Trant and Quatre. Meela lifted Deathwing off the floor and maneuvered behind Trowa, then fired her engines to shoot her away from the ship. She put all the power she could into the engines and glanced at the timer. Ten seconds. She hoped they would be far enough away.

In a giant blue-red-orange fireball, the Obselisc exploded. Meela braced herself as the shockwave raced towards them. It hit, sending the five suits spinning out of control. When Deathwing finally righted itself, Meela looked back. There was nothing left of the huge ship.

Meela looked sadly at the picture she’d found. It had been floating in space with a short message written on the back. It was of Meela and her mother. A tear slipped unnoticed from her eye as she looked at the smiling woman. She turned it over and read the message.

‘I took this when you were five years old. You probably don’t remember, but I loved you and your mother then. I’m sorry things turned out the way they did and I hope that you could forgive me someday. Live and Love dear Meela. Love Marie.’

Meela sighed and pushed the picture into her bag. She shouldered it and turned towards the door. Relena stood there in the open doorway. Meela didn’t have the energy to scowl.

“Miss Relena,” she said curtly, trying to indiscreetly wipe the tear from her eye. Relena just smiled.

“How are you Meela?”

“I’m fine,” Meela replied. She paused as she passed the older girl.

“I... I remember that song I was playing at the Sanc Kingdom. The one you asked me about.”

“Yes?”

“It was called Para Mia. I means ‘For Mother’.”

I love that ending! For anyone who wants to know, Para Mia is a real song. It was written by Brandi Hawkins who is thirteen. It is one of my favorite songs to play so I thought I’d put it in my story. And a special thanks to my Brother for his help. This last chapter is dedicated to Starling since she loves battles so much. :)