Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Masquerade ❯ Chapter Twelve ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve

Epyon was waiting for her, just as Heero and Trowa had promised. She threw on a spacesuit and a helmet, then climbed inside the cockpit. Everything flew to life and Sage was illuminated. She flicked the com switch on and located the base's wavelength.

"This is Sage-Codename Nightshade-reporting. Over."

"This is Heero. First stage? Over."

"Completed. Am initiating second and final stage. Over and-" Sage pressed the button. "out." She flipped Another couple of switches and entered the code into Epyon's computer. She was off.

Well, actually she was just idling in space. There was no point to waste energy by zooming around till the enemy came. Sage sat and waited her prey.

She didn't have to wait long. A quick movement to the left of her caught her eye, and she expanded her screen, then zoomed in on the lights. Hundreds of mobile dolls, all headed for her.

"Oh well. This is the way the money goes, I guess." She unsheathed Epyon's beam sword and stood at a leisurely position, waiting. The dolls stopped about 700 feet away. Sage leaned forward over the controls, looking at them.

"My, my. What have we here?" The shadowed face of their commander appeared on screen.

"Ready to die, bastard?" Sage snarled at him.

"I-Is that The Epyon? And who are you?!?!? A girl??" The commander leaned very close to the screen, to make sure he was right.

"Every day of the week!" She looked behind her and leisurely cut the four mobile dolls behind her to pieces. "Nice try. Gonna have to do better than that!"

With a roar, the rest of the squad charged at her. Sage took a deep breath and hacked left and right, never missing her mark. But there were too many.

"This is Nightshade-Need backup!! Over." No answer came. Sage snarled and launched back into the mob. She had gotten about half of them, but Epyon was suffering from its numerous slashes. Suddenly, a bright light filled the air. A look behind her confirmed her worst fear. The colony was erupting in a bright flash of light.

Sage trembled. M-mommy? D-daddy? She slumped over the controls, crying bitterly. I'll kill every last one. No one will live!!!!!!

With a scream, she launched herself back at them and hacked the rest to pieces, then hacked the pieces to even smaller pieces. They were gone. All her life. Her house, her home, her family. Dead. Blown to smithereens. Bastards! Sage slammed her fist on the controls, crying bitter tears of frustration and failure. She had failed. They were gone. With a final slammed fist on the dashboard she laid her forehead down and cried.

Ten minutes later, the com system crackled to life.

"Sage? Mission report."

"Shut up Heero."

"…They got the colony."

"Don't rub it in, all right?!?!? The bloody bastards!" She slammed her fist on the controls again.

"It's not Epyon's fault. Don't blame him."

"I-It told me it would happen. It's that Zero system, isn't it?"

"…" Heero didn't reply.

"Duo will be by with a spacecraft at the rendezvous point. Location is entered into your tracking system."

"Duo?" Sage was going to say more but Heero shut off on her. All she could do now was wait.

The spacecraft arrived about 40 minutes later. Sage loaded Epyon on, then clambered up to the front with Duo. He looked at her sympathetically. She snorted and turned her back to him, watching out of the window. Little bits of mobile doll flew by the craft as they idled through the wreck. Sage looked back at the Nebula that was once her home.

"Goodbye.." She whispered softly, touching the glass in front of her almost longingly. Duo sighed and looked at her.

"Sage?"

"What."

"Look-I.." He sighed.

Sage didn't move. Duo snapped the shuttle on autopilot and faced her.

"I'm sorry about the other day. Having that on your mind is the last thing you need. I-was just jealous, I guess." Duo looked at his hands sheepishly.

"Jealous? Of Quatre?" Her tone was dripping with sarcasm.

"Yea-I-I.." He paused, took a breath, and went on. "Sage-I love you."

Sage tensed and looked down. "Duo-don't…"

Duo put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

"I know you don't feel the same way, but-" Duo smiled at her. Sage looked at her feet.

"I'm sorry Duo. I led you astray…I can't sit here and say I feel anything for you. It would be wrong… Oh Duo! I'm so sorry…" She hugged him tight, more for her sake than his. She had lost everything in one fatal sweep. Duo held her.

"It's ok to cry… I know it hurts." He stroked her back gently as she sobbed out all her tears into his shirt. When there were none left she pulled away.

"I'll murder all of the bloody bastards. They will have wished they were never born!" She began to laugh. The laugh became louder and louder till she was crying, screaming, and laughing all at the same time. She slipped onto the ground and buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Duo bent to her level and hugged her close again.

"Let it go, Sage…No one's watching."