“Guess they didn’t try hard enough.” The girl squeezed the trigger. Just as she did, Duo grabbed her arm so the shot fired into the sky. Narrowing her eyes, the girl shoved her elbow into Duo’s gut. When he released her hand she spun around and aimed her gun at him.

Duo held up his hands. “Hey! Watch it! Don’t go killing people who didn’t do the things you accuse them of!”

“Are you saying he-” She jerked her head toward Heero, “-wasn’t involved in the R-3’s destruction?”

Duo nodded and the girl lowered her gun. “Then how did the Eternal Rose get gundam 01 and 02?”

Duo shrugged. “We don’t no. But we didn’t know until it happened.

“I’ll take your word... until I find out for sure who was piloting those suits, you gundam pilots are suspects. Clear?”

Heero and Duo nodded. The girl turned to board her gundam again.

Quatre had come up from below deck just in time to see the scene unfold. “Wait! Who are you?”

The girl glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “My name isn't important...”

Quatre looked intently at the girl for a moment. “You’re a gundam pilot, like I used to be. I would really like to know.”

The girl turned to face him fully for an instant. “It's Faita. You’d do best to forget it.” She stepped onto the flat platform formed by the open door of her suit.

“May I ask one more question?” Quatre took a step forward to catch Faita’s attention. As he hoped, she turned back to him.

“You have a lot of questions. What is it?”

“Is it true that there's another suit from your colony?”

Faita hid any emotion she may have had as perfectly as Heero. “It was destroyed in action.”

Quatre gave his trademark sweet-sad look. “And the pilot? What was his fate?”

“She died with it.” Still no emotion.

“I’m so sorry... were you two friends?”

“People like me can’t attach themselves to anyone. It’d only be for the worst.” She climbed into her gundam and closed the hatch. The gundam took off and disappeared rapidly on the horizon, which burned red in the sunset.

Inside the suit, Faita set her jaw. Red sunset, red horizon, all stained as livid as the blood that would once again engulf the planet. Perhaps the colour of the sky was a symbol... perhaps the Earth and the colonies could sense another war...

Heero sat at his lap top in the dimly lighted hold of the preventer ship, busily typing commands. Duo: stepped up behind him and glanced over the screen. “What's all this?”

Heero pushed a few more keys. His hacking skills had helped him again. “Faita Chikara, 17 years old, pilot of the Windance Gundam built by a man named Inspector C... that’s all I can get.”

Duo blinked and pointed to a link at the bottom. “What’s NSY?”

Heero tried to activate the link. An irritating beep sounded as a text box popped up and asked for a password.

Heero typed a few keys. “Access denied,” Came the computer’s monotone recorded voice.

The circus tent was lit up, glowing in the early evening darkness. Trowa left the tent, heading for the animal cages. The show had just finished. He glanced up as sounds of a mechanical device reached his ears.

Catherine stepped up behind her little brother, looking nervous. “Did you hear that, Trowa?”

Trowa nodded and strained to see what was causing the sound, which was growing louder. Suddenly, out of the shadows, the Heavyarms custom materialized, preparing to fire on the tent!

Catherine gasped. “That's your suit Trowa, isn't it?! But you destroyed it!”

Trowa turned to her, a vague sense of urgency in his eyes. “Cathy, get out of here, now!”

“But what about you Trowa?!” Catherine rested a hand on each of his shoulders, tears in her eyes.

“Just get out of here. I’ll meet you outside of town.” He spoke with the outward confidence that, deep down, he didn’t really have.

Catherine turned to a large truck. She could get everyone out in that. Then she turned back to Trowa. “I believe in you Trowa! I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I’m sure it’ll work!” She hurried into the crowd of confused people, trying to organize them and keep them away from the spreading flames caused by the Heavyarms.

Then Trowa did get an idea. He hoped on a truck filled with fireworks for the next night’s performance, set it into cruise straight for the attacking mobile suit, then jumped off.

The Heavyarms was suddenly caught off guard by the exploding truck. It toppled over, giving the circus people just enough time to let Trowa clamber on the truck and speed away.

A man in a black suit rooted through papers on his desk. He had short, dark blonde hair and brown eyes. He muttered to himself what a dull job he had as he shifted through the massive piles of paper. A soft knock on his cramped office door caught his attention.

“Come in.”

The girl who entered was talk and slim, with boyish cut blond hair and radiant blue-green eyes. She wore a plain white sleeveless shirt and long, dark blue jeans.

“Mr. Simsu?”

The man at the desk barely glanced up. “Yes?”

“I'm here to apply for a membership to the Crimson Sky.”

“Ah yes, come in! Come in!” He dug through his pile of papers and pulled out an application form.

Faita took the paper, scanning over it briefly before accepting the pen he offered and jotting answers in the blanks. As she wrote, she spoke in a level voice, showing no definite character. “As I understand the Eternal Rose has become the principle problem Crimson Sky has formed to deal with. I have first hand experience with what those guys can do.”

Mr. Simsu looked intrigued. “Can you relate this incident where you acquired this experience Ms ...?”

“Chikara. And I'm sure you heard about the R-3 incident.”

“I see. I'm deeply sorry for any losses you might have experienced there.”

Faita frowned as he took back the completed application form. She didn’t want sympathy. Not from anyone.

“Welcome to Crimson Skies!” He extended his hand and she shook it. “Please be at sleeping quarters on the other side of this base tomorrow morning.”

The next morning saw Faita climbing smoothly out of her Windance gundam, much to the amazement of Mr. Simsu and the other members of Crimson Sky who had gathered.

“How... how did you get a mobile suit like this?” Mr. Simsu was trying hard not to let his jaw drop.

“It’s my mobile suit. But it needs repairs. I can pay what it costs for them.”

“If you can fight in a suit like this we won’t charge you for repairs. We have all you’ll need.”

“Including gundanium?”

Mr. Simsu nodded. “We have some from the old OZ base where they repaired Tallgeese and Wing Zero. And by the way, catch!” He tossed her the Crimson Sky’s trademark: a blood-red collared shirt with no signs of affiliation.

“Your new assignment, Quatre. I know you’re not very involved in the Preventers, seeing as you’re the head of the Winner family, but I think this job suits you.” Sally handed the former Sandrock pilot a paper. He glanced over it, then back at her.

“You think that other shooting star was the other mobile suit from the R-3?”

“Exactly. It’s a fairly short assignment. Just head down to Australia and look for anything out of the ordinary. If the first pilot survived, the second may have.”

Quatre nodded and turned to board the helicopter waiting to leave the preventer ship’s deck.

Faita was sparring with a Leo suit, controlled by Mr. Simsu. She smiled in satisfaction at the challenge. Too bad it was only a simulator. “You’re pretty good. You must have been in another army before this.” She dodged the wide swing of his beam sabre.

“I was with the white fang. But we had mostly Aries there. I prefer Leos, land mobile suits.” He pushed himself to one side just in time to avoid her sabre.

“Hn. That’s surprising. Aries and Taurus suits are faster.” She struck out with her sabre again, slicing off the Leo’s right arm.

“Not specifically. It depends on the pilot and the system.” He tried to dodge the Gundam’s next simulated attack, but couldn’t get out of the Windance’s extensive reach. The suit was sliced in two instantly. Satisfied, Faita climbed out of the simulator seat and removed her dark virtual reality glasses. Mr. Simsu stood and did the same. “What kind of system does your gundam run on?”

“It’s known as the A.K.I.R.A. system. Active kaleidoscopic imagery resolution advancement.” Seeing the puzzled look on the man’s face she continued. “It detects patterns in fighting styles of the enemy and feeds it directly to the pilot’s brain. It then creates several possibilities depending on the strategies used. Almost like the ZERO system, only less dominating. It only suggests the possibilities, it doesn’t cause the pilot to question they’re reasoning.”

“Who created this system? I’ve never heard of it.”

“A few scientists on the R-3 experimental colony.”

“Is the system constantly activated?”

“No. A certain level of adrenalin in the pilot’s brain triggers the program.”

“I see.”

Quatre stood on the bow of a large preventer ship. It had just docked at an Australia wharf.

Suddenly a girl in a purple space suit similar to the one Faita, the Windance Gundam’s pilot, had worn, emerged from the waves. She struggled to walk up onto the shore, coughing and gagging weakly.

Quatre’s friendly eyes widened. “Oh no!” He ran to the wharf, then down to the white sand beach. “Are you okay?”

The girl said nothing, coughing up seawater before collapsing into the sand. Quatre knelt next to the fallen girl, taking her by the shoulders and gently shaking her.

“Can you hear me?” The girl didn’t respond...

Tsuzuku

Laura (A.K.A. Faita) @: Cyber_eight@hotmail.com
Holly (A.K.A. Ceaira) @: Emerald_strife@hotmail.com

Homepage
Episode 3: Another Fallen Angel