Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Reprieve ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit! Come on Scythe buddy, wake up!"

Duo was sure he had re-routed the system the right way but it just wouldn't boot up. He was dead in the water, and it was dark…He knew the systems were cooling and the longer he waited the more unlikely it would be that anything would start. He would freeze to death on the Moon Base…

"COME ON!" Duo yanked on the manual booster and sobbed in relief when the lower engines roared to life and the systems booted. He sensed more than heard the new additions boot, first below him, then in the shoulders to his left and right, then above with the two he had planted in the head.

"Don't disappoint me, baby. I'm sure you can work this way…You can't control me; I'm a human being. But I can control you…you're just a machine. Just metal…God, let you just be metal."

Reaching out with shaking hands, Duo gripped the controls and felt the difference. Deathscythe was suddenly lighter, all systems utilized and functioning on one core program. He also felt an innate desire to do wrong and knew the system was emitting some sort of signal. He was right; the system could control a pilot, or in the case where there wasn't a pilot it could pilot itself. Duo was not about to allow either and had reverses the controllers, but he had not known how to reverse the feed. It was telling him to complete the Doctor's mission, something his own training demanded he do, but Duo knew if he obeyed he would die, and the system would infect the other Gundams and destroy the other pilots just as quickly. The Doctor's would finally have the perfect pilot; no pilot.

Trying to block out the suggestions thundering through the cockpit, Duo traced the commands to the core and followed the map the system provided. The Doctor's had wanted the Gundams for something; had wanted mindless monsters for a reason, and he was determined to discover what it was.

It was a relatively short trip to the `x that marked the spot'. Deathscythe crashed through a side panel into a long workshop full of what at first appeared to be a new mobile suit model, but like the suits they had fought outside the base these gave off no life signs and the only sign of heat was mechanical.

"Come on buddy, show me where to go…" Duo hissed as the system threw several possibilities at him. He knew which to take but the things he was seeing made it difficult to move at all. A sense of disease was fast devouring whatever small amount of adrenaline Duo had been running on, leaving only a small, frightened teenage boy.

Gathering his courage, Duo moved to the end of the bay, slashing as many of the suits as he could in the process. He came to a large hanger door and slashed it open. As the dust settled two red lights appeared ahead. Duo waited patiently for the censors to clear, but when he finally caught sight of what lay within his only wish was that he had stayed away. That G had killed and replaced him after all.

*

"What's happening?" Heero demanded as he once again retreated from a renewed attack by the Tallgeese. Whatever reprieve Zechs had given them had come to an end and the older pilot was pushing their disadvantage for all it was worth. He knew they were off balance and was not about to let that stop him. Heero could not blame him; it was a sound strategy.

"We don't know!" Quatre was sounding more and more panicked as the minutes ticked by and Heero was finding it increasingly difficult to keep emotions at bay. Something was going on inside the base and they couldn't get close. He himself had to deal with Tallgeese while Wufei and Trowa were facing off against the largest force of Mobile Suits Heero had ever seen. Worse, they didn't seem human; no sign of life was evident on the Gundam sensors. Then, of course, there was still no sign of Duo.

"I'm out of ammo," Trowa said calmly over the coms and Heero knew he would have to return to the Peacemillionn or risk losing a Gundam, which was too high a price. Which would only leave Heero and Wufei openly in the field to complete the mission. Even as he thought it Heero saw Shenlong come into view, Heavyarms nowhere to be seen.

Without warning, one elongated arm on Wufei's Gundam reached out and grabbed hold of Tallgeese's head, followed quickly by a massive gout of flame to the face. Heero heard Zech's cry out in alarm as his sensors died and then he was moving, following Wufei through the wreckage he and Trowa had wrought.

"Where?" Heero demanded, hoping Wufei had something on either the mission or the missing Gundam.

"I don't know, but there was an explosion a few minutes ago at the back of the complex!"

Heero nodded as his Gundam connected to an inner network with Shenlong, by the characters on the bottom of the screen it was obviously something Wufei had made himself though Heero had never seen anything quite the same.

"What is this?"

"Nataku," Wufei replied wistfully. "It's an AI unit originally installed in this Gundam for my wife."

"You're married?"

"No."

Heero scowled at the screen but there was no further response. It was apparent he had no right to that information, which was true but he would have liked to know anyway. Hilde would have called him plain nosy, and she probably would have been right.

Heero opened his mouth to say something, anything, when an explosion in the end complex they were headed toward rocked the entire light surface of the moon, sending the Gundam's hurtling toward hard rock and steel. Heero managed to pull out of the nose dive but Shenlong hit an arm on its way out of the impromptu dive and Heero judged the flamethrower out of action, the arm stuck part-way between extensions.

Out of the explosion rose…something Heero had never seen before. Some sort of Gundam, all dark colours and plated wings that gave it a more sinister appearance that Deathscythe. Heero was about to send out identification requests when Deathscythe, completely uncloaked, rose behind and the scythe whipped down to slice off the end of the new Gundam's tail. It seemed a petty and futile action until Heero recalled his discussions with Hilde and he realised Duo was aiming for the cooling systems, probably relying on the new Gundam not having the infrastructure he was accustomed to.

"Duo! Log onto the damn network!"

"He can't," Heero replied to Wufei, knowing Duo could not. Deathscythe, he knew, was no longer running off the network design systems, but off something new the doctors had concocted.

"Who's flying that thing?" Wufei snapped back.

"I don't know…but they know how to use it." Even as Heero replied the unknown Gundam turned sharply and grabbed a hold of one of Deathscythe's wings, twisting it down and hauling it loose from the shoulder blade. Heero didn't think the cloaking system would function after that. Then Deathscythe grabbed hold of a wing for itself and refused to let go and Heero knew for sure that Duo was going for the cooling systems.

Steam exploded from both Gundams at the same time the plant below them burst into flame.

"Heero, now!" Wufei yelled, throwing Shenlong between Deathscythe and the unknown. Heero looked down and saw what had to be done, flying low as he charged the buster rifle, then climbing high over the base core and firing. It seemed to take forever before enough energy expelled to make any difference at all, but it was just the natural delay of space ad a moment later the entire plant blew, tossing the Gundams in every direction. This time Heero could not tell up from down until his tail smashed into the moon, forcing an impromptu landing.

It took several minutes to get all systems up again, but his sensors told him they had successfully destroyed the operational sectors of the base.

"Status?" Quatre screamed over the Peacemillion's network link.

"Alive," Heero replied as he caught sight of movement nearby. "What's in the air?"

"Several Oz shuttles have escaped the base."

"And you're letting them go?"

"The mission was not to kill members of Oz," Howard interjected and Heero found himself actually relieved to be able to drop the issue. Though how a Sweeper had any clue what their mission had been was something he intended to address.

"I have Deathscythe. Making our way back to the Peacemillion. It'll take us a while."

"Acknowledged," Heero reluctantly logged off from Nataku and forced Wing to its feet, preparing to launch. His sensors picked up on more movement and he watched in silence as Tallgeese and the mystery Gundam launched off toward the fleeing Oz vessels. Heero had questions about thema s well, but they would have to wait until he could speak with J, a conversation he certainly was not looking forward to. Maybe he could just find the answers on his own…

"Maybe Hilde was right….I must have space fever. Disobeying J….What was I thinking?"

As he launched Heero noticed he had mail on the system and quickly opened it.

::What indeed::

Heero's eyes narrowed as he read the two words over and over. There was only one obvious conclusion, but it was not pleasant. His Gundam had been hacked.

*

Wufei shut down as many of the systems as he could without completely destroying half the systems in Shenlong then forced the hatch open and made a running leap for the platform, heedless of the metal shard in his knee and the shoulder he thought must be dislocated.

"Wufei!"

He ignored Sally as he ran straight for Deathscythe which while powered down was still releasing gouts of steam and leaking oil all through the hanger. A moment before he leapt at the manual lever for the hatch the whole thing flew off and went hurtling to the floor with a loud crash and Duo stumbled to the edge, coughing madly gripping his braid in a white fist.

"Duo!"

It took a moment for the coughing fit to subside but Duo soon looked up, dazed and nodded before grabbing hold of a strap over his head and hitting a button on the Gundam's inner shell. Wufei watched in horror as he plummeted toward the floor only to pull up a meter short where he promptly dropped to the floor and curled into a small ball. Horrified, Wufei waited as Sally checked him over.

"Status?" He finally yelled down when he could find his voice.

"Some burns, a few sprains…nothing major. Looks like he took a few blows to the head too."

Wufei nodded, feeling suddenly faint as someone pushed past him. It took several moments to realize Yuy had pushed past and leapt through Deathscythe's open hatch. He watched as Heero sat down and ran his eyes over everything in view.

"This is not the network…"

Wufei really didn't care. The Gundam could wait. He shrugged his shoulders and made his way after Sally and Duo. He was surprised to find an arm under his elbow after his first few steps on the floor and looked up to find Howard offering his support.

"Would it hurt to let me?" Howard countered his dirty look.

Wufei thought about it long and hard, thought about a lot of things in a very short time frame, then leaned a little more heavily.

"Thank you."

*

"It has been an interesting day."

Trowa raised a brow at Quatre. `Interesting' was not quite the term he would have used to describe it.

"Heero seems…different. I wonder what happened to him after we left."

Trowa just shrugged. He had no clue where Heero had been or what he had been and he had even less intention of wasting time thinking about it when he knew Heero would tell them in his own good time if they needed to know.

"What do you think they did to the Deathscythe?"

Trowa had thought about that a lot since they had left the moon base, but his head just worked in the same circles. He needed to think outside the square but was not quite in the mood. He had a feeling he didn't really want to know the answers anyway.

"Whatever they did, I am sure Heero and Howard will soon figure it out."

Quartre smiled at that and Trowa understood why. Trying to imagine Heero working with the Sweeper Captain was a little…difficult, but it was rather entertaining. Trowa had originally intended to help, act as a mediator when needed, but several minutes in the pair's company had been almost enough to break even his stoic façade and he had soon left them to it.

"Do you think Duo is alright?"

"I think," Trowa finally sighed, wondering if Quatre ever planned on just going to sleep, "Wufei is worse than Duo right now and that neither are in any danger. Po is a very talented doctor."

They lay in silence then, each thinking his own thoughts before Quatre broke the silence a final time, winning a laugh from Trowa.

"I thought Wufei was going to have a coronary."