After colony 197; a new era and new hope for a life without war. However, the Eternal Rose, a rebel organisation, has been formed in the colonies. Several World leaders, including the United Nations vice-president, have gone missing without a trace over the past few days. Though the Preventers have released no information, it is suspected that the Eternal Rose is responsible for these disappearances. At the head of this military group are two leaders; Armond Nikumu, in charge of earth forces, and Lady Mirai Naraku in charge of space forces. Nothing is known about these two with the exception of their names.
Built on the R-3 were two advanced mobile suits, under the simple code names 06 and 07. While originally designed for Operation meteor, they were not completed in time and instead assigned to take part in a complex operation that would later become known as ‘Operation Fallen Angels’
The mysterious girl’s blue eyes snapped open. She sat up, coughing madly.
Quatre looked slightly relieved. “Are you okay?”
“If you like drinking 12 gallons of sea water-” she coughed violently and gasped, sucking in air. “-then yeah, I'm just peachy.”
“There's a hospital nearby. I’ll take you there.”
The girl jumped to her feet. “No! I'm not going to the hospital! They'll I.D. me and they'll find who I really am! I'm not going to let that...” She sank back to her knees, feeling faint. She rested one hand on each side of her head, partially covering up the long scar and eyepatch on her left eye. Her short black hair was cut just above her shoulders with blue highlights on the front peices.
Quatre rested a hand on each shoulder to support her. “Who are you? Wait... 07?”
The girl glanced up, startled. “How did you know that?”
Quatre smiled. “Faita will be happy to hear you're alive... That is, if I can find her again...”
The girl stood on weak knees and took a step back. “Faita?! She's alive?!” She took a few small jumps for joy. “Yes! We both cheat death again!” Then she remembered feeling weak and stopped jumping, holding her head in her hands.
Quatre looked worried. “I just hope you can find her. She disappeared...”
“Yup, that's the Faita I know,” she grinned. “So who are you anyway?”
Quatre held out his hand “My name is Quatre Raberba Winner.”
“Nice name,” she took his hand and shook it. “I'm Ni-Su Yuy.” She glanced at the ocean, painted a brilliant orange by the setting sun. “Now how am I going to raise the StarStorm...”
“There's a crane on the tanker I was travelling on. You may want to raise it at night...”
Ni-Su looked slightly surprised. “You knew StarStorm was my gundam didn't you?”
“Lucky guess.” He shrugged and gave a warm smile.
She nodded. “Well, let's get to wherever that crane is.”
“Sure.” Quatre turned and lead the way to the wharf where the ship had docked.
Ni-Su followed, smiling and thinking to herself ‘Wow, he's cute’
Ahead of her, Quatre smiled too. ‘She's beautiful... and she seems nice...’
The room was lit moderately by several fancy lamps and wall fixtures. In the soft glow they gave off the room should have seemed friendly. It didn’t. There were enormous maps covering the walls with certain areas circled or crossed out in red marker. The only furniture was a large desk littered with papers and a small table with chairs in the middle of the room. Two people sat at the table, playing chess.
“Did you encounter 06 and 07?” The man didn’t glance up as he moved his rook forward. He was tall but stocky, and had a dangerous air to him. He wore a black uniform littered with badges and signs of high affiliation. His hair was short and brown, in contrast with his burning red eyes.
The woman nodded. Her blonde hair was pulled into an elegant bun at the top of her head and she wore a green blazer with a matching skirt. The rose pinned to the blazer was the only decoration she wore, though she seemed elegant in her manner. “Yes. Though I can't be sure they're finished.” Her voice was smooth and some what seductive, but the man seemed used to it. In one graceful motion she moved her bishop to capture the rook the man had just moved.
The bulky man nodded. “As long as we destroy them. After all, they'll soon be outnumbered once we place our two next chess pieces into the playing field.” He moved his knight to capture a white pawn.
The woman frowned. “Be more careful how you use the Heavyarms. Some witnesses know that Trowa Barton wasn't responsible for the attack earlier, since he was with them.” She captured the knight with another of her pawns.
“But it's a small handful compared to hundreds who know he is the pilot.” He moved the black king back a square.
“True... but you have a tendency to over look things that appear harmless until too late... Such as this chess piece... Checkmate.” She gave a very sinister smirk.
The man glared at his companion. “I know some things I have never overlooked. When my daughter ran away seven years ago she died in a gutter. No one can survive that kind of slash to the face.” He gave an oily grin.
The woman shot him a disgusted look, so condescending that even royalty could have felt lower than her. “So, you murdered her? Foolish. If someone should find out...”
“She deserved it. Just like her mother.” He sounded almost proud of his crime.
The woman recoiled, standing and stepping toward the small window that looked out on a crowded stretch of rooftops. “You're a sick man Nikumu. Keep your little rages to yourself, got it?”
Nikumu leaned back in his chair. “Don’t fret Lady Naraku, I can keep my anger in check. But keep in mind we are prepared to kill many.
Lady Naraku turned back to Nikumu. “Our ultimate goal is domination, not senseless bloodshed, although we will have to squash people to climb to the top.”
“And I will squash them!” He broke a chess piece in his fist to emphasise his words.
“See to it you do.” She waved a hand carelessly and turned bask to the window. Below her the streets were empty in the growing dusk.
Nikumu replaced the broken chess piece on the board. “Care for another game?”
“I have battle plans to deal with. I must return to the colonies. Our other ‘game pieces’ are almost complete... let the game of wits and strength begin.”
Faita glanced up from her work and put down her blow torch. he gundam was laying flat in a large hangar owned by the Crimson Sky. She pulled the red Crimson Sky shirt over her plain white sleeveless shirt and climbed into the cockpit of the Windance. “What? What's coming onto the scanners...” She cued the mobile suit to stand and leave the building. Turning in the direction the scanners had picked something up, she strained her eyes. The Wing Zero was flying toward her at a high speed. Faita gritted her teeth. “So... the Wing Zero is going to finish it... or try!” She charged directly at the approaching suit.
The pilot inside the Wing Zero flipped down the visor in his helmet and activated the Zero system. “Time to get it over with. I will not let commander Nikumu down!” He pulled out a beam sabre and met the Windance head on. The impact stunned Faita for only a moment. Just then the Wing Zero whirled behind the Windance and struck out with it’s beam sabre. The armour dented, but held.
Faita cringed “You're good... but not good enough!” She spun around and sliced at her opponent. The Wing Zero moved inches out of the deadly sabre’s range just in time, counter attacking with a swipe at the front of the green gundam.
Faita braced herself, willing her mobile suit back to it’s feet. She gave a somewhat evil, taunting smile not unlike the one Lady Naraku had giving just a few hours before. “No beam cannon? This can't be Heero Yuy after what I've heard...”
The pilot said nothing, slamming the Windance with the Wing Zero’s elbow.
Cringing, Faita took a fast swipe with the blade on the end of the shield her suit held. “If I can get that beam cannon...huh?”
Her opponent had charged it’s boosters and was flying backwards, as if retreating. Then it became apparent that wasn’t the objective. Faita found herself staring down the barrel of the powerful beam cannon, charging up!
“Damn! There's a civilian torn nearby!” She quickly pushed backward, heading for the open ocean behind her.
On the open water Faita turned back to her pursuer. “Okay, you want a piece of me? Or should I say you want me in pieces?” She readied her sabre for another strike.
“Freeze, both of you!”
Startled, the battling pilots turned to where Sally’s voice had come from: an approaching preventer ship.
“Stay out of this. You guys don’t have the firepower to stop this battle. You’ll be killed.” Faita’s voice had gone monotone. She didn’t need people stopping her battles. She could win...
“Want to bet? We have defensive cannons aimed at you. Stop your battle immediately!”
The Wing Zero pilot smirked and prepared to fire another shot of the beam cannon at Faita.
Sally hesitated a moment, then fired. The Wing Zero was knocked into the water, the pilot jolted against the controls. In the shallow water the Wing Zero lay sprawled like a forgotten toy. From the deeper water where the ship lay Faita noticed Heero standing on the deck, surveying the fallen gundam.
Sally emerged from the main tower and turned to Heero. “I know what you're thinking... and if you want to keep this thing you better keep it hidden!”
Heero smirked.
Quatre handed Ni-su a blanket from the ship’s supply. “So, how did you end up on the R-3?”
“I ran away from home. My father tried to kill me.” She wrapped the blanket around herself and smiled weakly at Quatre. He gave her a sad look.
“I'm so sorry...”
“It's okay. That's what I meant by cheating death. He gave me this scar on my eye.” She pointed to the patch over her left eye. The scar stuck out above and below the black patch. “And because of it I was in a coma for three months.” She shivered a little and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
“It must have been so hard for you.” Quatre frowned. He didn’t want anyone to go through that kind of pain. Especially someone who seemed so nice.
Ni-su gave a weak smile. “Well, I've learned to survive. That's my motto in life, ‘Survive it all.’ I just see that as my hardest point in life, and look at any other bad circumstances as not being so bad. I became a gundam pilot because of the determination I aquirred.”
“But why is your gundam still nesessary?” Quatre frowned again, perplexed.
“That’s... a long story. You’ll find out soon. By the way, I didn't want to be identified because they would look at my profile, and find out my real name. Then they would probably take me back to Armond... And I don't want to go back. I like my hometown, but not him. He's the only reason I never went home at all...”
“That's so sad...” Quatre didn’t seem to notice she had changed the subject quickly.
“I’m still alive, that’s what counts... Hey, you said your last name was Winner? Then aren’t you the sandrock pilot?”
“I was. I self-detonated it a few months ago.”
“Oh. Actually, Faita and I were supossed to join you guys in the fight against OZ, but when our gundam's were finally completed, the first war and the war against Marimaea were over.”
“But... why did you keep them?”
“Uh... Just incase. Our fear was brought to the surface when Marimaea attacked, but we needed more training. The rebelion ended before we finished, so we kept on training in case something else happened.”
“I guess something did... now you don’t have a home to return to. What are you going to do now?”
“Whatever I think is right. The same goes for Faita.”
Quatre nodded. “Well, we better try to raise your gundam. It’s dark out, so no one will see it.”
“It’s remarkably similar to the other gundams. Who did you say built it?” Quatre asked, gazing up at the seaweed-covered blue mobile suit.
“Inspector C.” Ni-su smiled at Quatre. He was cute...
“There’s an old safehouse nearby. We can keep it there. And I received word that Trowa, Duo and Heero are there with the Wing Zero.”
“The other pilots? And I thought you said the Wing Zero was destroyed in battle.” She narrowed the eye that had no eye patch over it, thinking.
“It was. I supose it really was the Wing Zero that you fought in space, though. The Eternal rose, as they call themselves, must have rebuilt it.”
“I could have told you that.” She smiled.
Tsuzuku
Laura (A.K.A. Faita) @: Cyber_eight@hotmail.com
Holly (A.K.A. Ceaira) @: Emerald_strife@hotmail.com
