Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Survival ❯ Hopes & Dreams ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Hopes & Dreams

This chapter is where I'm really introducing a lot of the points where I decided to change events in the last couple episodes of the show so that the outcome came out differently. I'm trying to keep this as realistic as possible, and what the characters refer to happening really is what happened in this timeline, at least if it's from their own memories; I still have all my convoluted old ways of using a confused character's viewpoint as truth to play with the reader's perceptions. I'm not saying I'm going to do that, because honestly I have little to no idea exactly what I'm plotting at this point… I'm just seeing things in my head and unfolding them for you all.

There are also references to Episode Zero events after this point.

April 23rd 197 - Sunday - Amsterdam

I groaned, rolling over; my stomach was sour, my head was pounding… and shit, I was pissed. I'd been picked off like a fuckin' novice… two years of war, the last one all guerilla fighting, homemade explosives to do Duo proud and hand-to-hand, learning to drive anything and run like the wind itself if I had to… and some fuckin' Regime thug had managed to sneak up on me and get a good blow to my head…

Po's gonna be pissed. I'll never hear the end of this… provided I get out anyhow…

…Actually, why was I on a bed?

I sat up a little, pushed at it experimentally; it was a piece of shit, just a pad like you put under a sleeping bag when you went camping, but the thick nest of blankets I was half wrapped in was wonderfully soft and warm. Definitely not the Regime's doing. I sat up the rest of the way and looked around. It was a tiny room, only six by six feet, maybe, and if I stood I could touch the ceiling, I was sure… But still, it was almost homey, with a dim, battery powered light on near my head, and I could see a little handheld radio with an extended antennae made out of tin foil on it that looked like it had been set up with care… a duffel with clothes spilling out of it, Polaroid pictures of a bunch of different kids stuck up with duct tape, along with some of people more my age…

…and a rather large pile of guns and knives, along with belts and holsters that went with them.

The door creaked open and I jumped, clutching at my blankets… but the girl, younger than me, made a soothing motion with her hands and started saying something… that I totally couldn't follow.

“What?”

She tilted her head at me and smiled. Dimly I realized she was both really pretty… and pretty damn pregnant. “English?” she asked.

Her accent was really heavy, but I breathed a sigh of relief at that. “God yes, English… where am I?”

“This is the Devil's quarter.” When I stared at her blankly, she added, “Sorry, in Amsterdam. Chaos, he insisted we break you out right after they brought you into town, you'd been drugged… That was early this morning; it's almost noon, now.”

That explained so much, yet so very little. “Oh…”

A man moved into the room behind her. “Hello,” he greeted with the same thick accent. “Don't worry, any friend of Chaos is a friend of mine. You're safe here.”

“Thanks…” Who the fuck are they talking about…? It was probably some side agent that known better than to leave me in enemy hands and had taken advantage of the situation as soon as he heard. In which case, I'd better act like I knew him… so where was he?

“Oh, shit…” The woman laughed a little, looking to the man… who was likely the father, with the way he stood by her. She started rattling off to him in that other language, and he barked a laugh before looking back to me.

“Chaos is a new name, he took it right before he came here, but I forgot to ask him what name to give you…” He shook his head. “He's asleep now, though, and will be for a while, he works the graveyard shift down in the industrial district… You'll see him tonight.”

“Do you want to wash?” the girl asked curiously. “I hope you're not shy, we share the water, but the other girls and I thought we'd wait for you…”

I smiled at that and stood. I'd love to get clean, and I'd been through basic training in OZ, I wasn't scared of showing my behind to another chick. “That sounds really good.”

They both grinned at me, and the man stepped into the room and grabbed up the bag with the clothes. “He'll want these when he wakes up… he was worried he might wake you up if he came in here when he got home. I'm Luc, by the way. Sin will show you the ropes.” He pecked the girl, `Sin,' on the lips before walking back out.

Sin grinned a bit. “So…” She held out one hand. “I'm Sin.”

I grinned back at her and shook her hand. “Hilde. It's nice to meet you.”

***

Paris, France

“You look fit to be tied.”

“If you had been trying to get your hands on that bitch for the last year, you wouldn't be so calm!” the blonde woman ranted. “I swear on everything holy, that woman always pulls the rug right out from under you!”

Relena frowned. “She was the one who got out the information on Libra, wasn't she?” When Dorothy's eyes narrowed, Relena smiled a little. “She told me what she was up to before she tried to escape, back then… She said she knew one of the boys… though it would seem she was wrong when she said she wasn't strong enough to fight with them.”

“Considering the fact that she disobeyed direct orders then deserted OZ in order to help free Maxwell, long before she joined White Fang, I imagine I know which one she was referring to,” Dorothy growled.

Relena smiled a little. “It seems like she has some of Duo's finesse; you keep underestimating her.”

“Forgive me for not expecting a regular in a Virgo to maneuver around a Mercurius and take down a Vayeate with Gundam pilot programming,” the other woman returned acidly, rolling her eyes. “I want to know how she tricked her life support's energy stream into the main of the engine… she'd have died anyhow if Maxwell hadn't dragged her back to Peacemillion as fast as he did.” Taking a deep breath, she muttered, “I don't think Winner would have been able to take her down if she had been controlling the dolls…”

Relena frowned. Dorothy actually sounded… petulant. Not that that was so much of a surprise, but… “You really don't like to be outdone, do you?”

She sighed again. “Who does, Miss Relena? Certainly not you. I hope you do realize that the fact that she got away again means we really don't have any new information to go off of.”

“Yes… but neither does my brother.”

The other woman chuckled a little at that. “Sibling rivalry at its finest…”

Relena looked over the horizon to the Eiffel tower… Such an old monument, from so long ago… It had been worthless in and of itself, but it had symbolized not only prosperity, but dominance… “If we have to fight over something, why not civilization itself?” she asked dryly.

“…How far?”

Relena turned to meet her nervous expression with a frown. How far am I willing to go? That always was the question with Dorothy… And in all honesty, she didn't yet know. She wasn't sure if her faith in pacifistic ideals was entirely gone or not… but she wasn't sure that she had faith in any kind of fighting either. Every struggle she involved herself in always seemed to end hopelessly whatever way she tried to solve it.

But… this wasn't about total pacifism anymore. This was about saving the world, not from constant war, but from Milliardo and what he had done; there was no war now… but society itself had turned into a sham. This was about saving humanity from taking a deeper dive than it could recover from… the absolute definitions of right and wrong could be redefined later.

She didn't think she could take a gun from Dorothy to assassinate her brother any more now than she could have back on Libra… but she was no longer sure if it was because she couldn't stand to use a weapon, or because she knew it would send the organization into a chaos that she could never reorganize it from.

“As far as I must.”

***

Amsterdam

I thought they had an idea that could work… I sorta regretted the fact that I found them, I could easily admit to that, but I couldn't just leave them to die after I'd saved them, and they wanted to really help…

“Oh shit, G, come on, man, you've gotta be kiddin' me…”

“You did your best, 02,” J snapped. “It was just too much trauma, the fabric ripped… And we knew the risk when we took used suits anyhow.”

“Well his suit didn't rip, why the hell isn't he gettin' up?!”

“It was a used suit, boy… he didn't realize how low the air supply was until it was too late.”

Duo tossed in his sleep. The cyborg freak's words had bitten deep…

The other two were straight up gone… and with a sick turn of my stomach, I realized I knew which spin had done and thrown them off… I swallowed. Well, they'd said themselves that they knew the risks of trying to hold on, even under my armor, while I fought a battle like that… they'd just needed to get to Peacemillion so bad…

“Boy, I don't move so fast as I'd like, if we want any hope of getting this done I'll need you!”

Fuck… He wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it… But my gundam'd be attacked any minute, as soon as the dolls' programming realized I was sitting still, and then they'd come investigate, and…

But if the orbit isn't changed, then none of it's worth anything.

“Shit…” I unbuckled as fast as I could, guiding Deathscythe into the entry one-handed; I'd already blown the door, so it wouldn't have any kind of extra shielding, not that those doors really ever held up to much anyhow… As soon as he was stable, or as stable as he was going to get, I bolted out of the hatch. “Alright old man, which way?”

It had all gone so very wrong, then… He knew he'd been in there for too long, and he didn't have the time to even radio out, so he wasn't sure what they'd think would have happened to him… He'd bolted as soon as the doc said he could take it from there, trying to get back out before it was too late…

I was suddenly into the damn wall… well, he'd boosted what was left of the engines, which meant that there was still something akin to hope left… and then I saw my buddy and realized the worst wasn't done happening yet. He was so shot up…

It had to still be functional… At least the dolls were gone, leaving me assumed defeated… Whoever was controlling them before must be slacking off.

It had to still fly… He was my only ticket out of here…

Too many fried circuits, and the power source was on the verge of failing… My communications systems were beyond hope, and shit, if I wanted to fly I needed to do it the old fashioned way, calibrate the fuel exhaust to the engines manually, and even that I had to do some work on before I could make it kiss up… If I could get close enough, I could use the Earth's gravity to pull me in to safety… If my shielding wasn't so shot that I burned up in the atmosphere first…

It was the best plan I could come up with, and it was going alright until I actually got close enough that the planet's pull was reeling me in strong enough I couldn't fight it if I wanted to… and then I saw it.

It was just out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't a fool, I could recognize a huge fuckin' piece of the Libra falling into the planet same as me, though it wouldn't be falling the same place I was… and I knew it was too big. There were smaller pieces around it, I could see Sandrock and Heavyarms trying to hack it up, but they weren't doing so hot…

Then Wing Zero's fuckin' suicide dive after it… I didn't know if even it could take the atmosphere so straight on like that… and then they were too far away to see. Everything was getting hot… too hot, I was going to burn right up…

Duo jerked out of his blankets, panting hard, rolled over onto the floor and woke up with a start at the cold tile on his bare back… and breathed a sigh of relief. Just a dream… He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, holding it up off his neck. Just a memory… He rolled back onto Luc and Sin's bed and shoved his face in the covers, breathing deep… just Luc's smell, Karina's cheap perfume, dirt and sweat… reality. No smoldering metal smell, no blood, no tears, no high CO2 levels…

He was asleep again in moments.

***

“What's the update?”

Shov shrugged. “Cops're every bit as lazy as usual… Regime's on it, but like Chaos said, they think it's the rebels. Slingers are slinking `round, looking for any info, but the Regime's not talking and the faction people I can find are acting all high and mighty, even though they don't actually know jack.” He took out a cigarette and considered it. “Made sure not to draw too much attention, but word is he was pretty important.”

“You really were asleep last night, huh?” Luc asked, grinning. “And go outside if you're going to smoke that.”

“Should've woken me up,” Shov returned grumpily, tapping the thing against his leg. “I'd have loved to see that boy in action, from what all Val's been saying.”

Luc grinned. “Yeah, the real kicker is he homemade all the shit he used… a couple weeks ago too, `incase something bad really happened.' With Chaos in hand, I swear, we could take the whole damn city if we wanted.” He waved at hand at his second's look. “I don't, I wouldn't even think we risk what we got for a dumb prize we couldn't even swallow… I'm just glad Cal pissed him off right when he got in town, else we might be in trouble.”

Shov could agree with that… though they actually needed more power now that they had the ex-solider. Their numbers had risen with him at their core to encourage loyalty with both the lure of protection as well as belonging. That was keeping them alive in some ways, but it made the Slingers really start viewing them as a rival… and he wasn't too sure what would keep Cal from coming knocking down their door, except Chaos. They needed him now, and he didn't like that dependence… though at the same time, Chaos made it clear that he needed them too…

And that was what all this was really about, wasn't it? Out of what law enforcement there'd been before the last war only a measly number was left, and out of those only a handful weren't crooked, and it was a big city… you couldn't trust anybody for anything these days. Groups had started to form up to make up for the gaps, and he himself had followed Luc because he'd known him growing up… and because he had a good idea. He only wanted what they all needed… and Cal's guys weren't locals, they were drifters that didn't give a damn about the city and what would happen to everything in the long run. Luc just wanted them to all survive the Peacecraft Regime without any more bad choices than they had to make.

He hadn't known what to make of Chaos at first. He'd seemed like he'd do better in the Slingers, much as he hated to admit it… but the kid really just wanted to blend in. Probably only because he was as young as he was, he really just wanted to forget his past… and dedicated everything he had to give to Luc and the church. He was talented beyond all means, but he didn't honestly care about any of that… So if he really knew how to make all the explosives and chemical cocktail he'd apparently thrown into the guard room down at the compound…

Well, all it really meant was that Luc had that power at his disposal.

“He doesn't want the competition,” Shov concluded, grinning and tucking the cigarette back in its packet. “We just think he's awesome and leave him be, Cal'd expect regular performances… and hell, where'd the boy be if he didn't have us to give him noogies like the good big brothers we are?”

Luc laughed. “Or my girlfriend to put make-up on him… Shit, I think he was still wearing it when he went to bed this morning.”

“He probably forgot she did it,” Shov agreed. “He sure did a turnabout, though… he can't seem to tell her no for anything, these days.”

His leader waved a hand at him. “Kay doesn't tell anybody no for laughs or favors… He made her respect his personal space, so now that she's gotten over herself she's allowed to invade it right alongside everybody else.”

“Melissa helped hold him down so she could do it,” Shov noted, still grinning, turning to actually watch the guys tussling; Luc hadn't done more than glance at him since he came in, his attention focused on them instead. He blinked. “Who the hell's that?”

Luc's grin widened. “That would be the bit of rebel sweetness Chaos insisted we rescue last night.”

He hadn't expected a woman, though he supposed one of the girls would call him a chauvinist if he admitted that… She was short, only about 5'4 at most, with dark, wavy hair held back in a ponytail that reached the small of her back. She was wearing a pair of low-cut jeans and a sports bra that held down what looked like a practically nonexistent bust, leaving a really well-toned torso open for viewing. Robby was grappling with her… and seriously getting his ass kicked.

“Wow.”

“Hot, huh?” Luc started laughing as his girlfriend punched his side… she'd been standing not too far away since he'd come in.

Luc grinned as Robby called mercy and she stood, meeting eyes with him… her face was sweet, and her dark blue slate eyes were sharp and intelligent… “Very.”

Sin laughed too, leaning against her lover's side. “She's pretty cool, yeah.”

She was walking towards them now… and she had that same fluid grace as Chaos, that dangerous glint to her eye that he had when he was amused… “Hi!” she greeted cheerfully in English.

She had the same obnoxiously American accent Chaos had…

“That looked fun,” Sin decided, smiling brightly. “You'll have to show me that last move you pulled. Are you hungry?”

“Absolutely starved,” she admitted.

“Good, I think somebody's already making food…” The two women laughed at that, and Sin gestured at him. “Doushovel, this is Hilde. Hilde, this is Luc's second, Shov.”

He felt like his jaw was going to drop to the floor. “Oh my God… Hilde Schbeiker?!” He'd heard the name tossed around that morning but hadn't thought too much of it… He saw Luc's eyes widen as he also looked at the girl and recognition sunk in. “You're the girl who took out that gundam doll all by yourself?”

Her laugh was adorable. “That was a whole lot of dodging and dumb luck, really… I'm just lucky the gundam pilots showed up and finished the job before the normal doll army showed up…” She scratched at her head. “Most of what they've reported being my fault since the war ended really was me, though.”

He'd heard about the rebels' leading women… but he'd never have thought he'd meet one… or that she'd be so damn hot.

“Um… Can I get a shirt?”

Sin laughed. “Shov might give you his right off his back…”

Hilde blushed, offering him a shy smile… and let Sin lead her back out of the main area.

“…I just made a total fool of myself, didn't I?”

“Oh, I don't know, those are Sin's old jeans she's wearing… she's got the body of a damn war goddess.” His leader was shaking his head after the women, highly amused. “She doesn't know the name Chaos, so I don't know how he knows her… Shit, with a girl like that, he might have decided to get her out even if he just knew her in passing, the boy's an altruist at heart.”

Shov shook his head. “They have the same accent, they move the same…”

Luc bit one lip. “I don't know, maybe they knew each other before the war… maybe they trained together or something. She just went through all our fighters the same way Chaos does…” He shook his head. “It'll all get cleared up once my damn devil wakes up and can talk to her himself, I'm just trying to keep it simple `til then.”

“Well, I think I can see why he didn't fall under Sin's spell, if he was around her…”

Luc rolled his eyes. “Sin's hotter than her.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“Seriously, that girl doesn't hardly have any curves.”

“And she doesn't need them…” The look his old friend was giving him was skeptical, and he couldn't help but laugh. “You have a kid on the way, man… Be glad you're not thinking about it. That's a woman I'd kill for.”

“If she's really Hilde Schbeiker,” Luc noted, “then she does have men killing for her, a lot of them, all of them dying trying to bring down the Peacecraft Regime.”

Shov scowled. “You're a killjoy.”

“Just trying to keep you grounded… Don't crowd her too much until we have some idea of how long she's staying.”

He sighed. “Yeah, yeah…”

***

Unknown

“So she got away…”

“Sir?”

“No, it's probably a good thing… It wasn't Carmen's fault his actions were actually picked up on for once, it's just how the cards played out. I'm just sad to have lost another good solider. Leave the Regime to tell his family; he died in their service, not mine. Dismissed.”

“Sir.”

Treize sighed, resting his face in one hand… another good man, dead. Unless faced with resistance, Zechs would never learn… but still…

Thomas Carmen. He etched the name into his memory.

It was a habit that he had come to long ago, as a teenaged officer who constantly found himself on battlefields not of his own choosing, remembering names… A few had teased him for it, many had tried to dissuade him, but others had honored him for it… and it had saved his life, once. Chang Meilan…

He had brushed up on the name after the colony had really been destroyed, uncovered the hidden reports of a mobile suit matching the Shenlong's description sighted defending it a year before Operation Meteor was ordered… And heard of a young girl with the same name as the Shenlong's pilot dying. He had made an educated guess when he offered that name, in an attempt for repentance before he let himself go… and then the boy had simply fled. He really was just a boy after all…

His suit had been damaged in the fight, and as he continued to fight afterwards… things had proceeded as could only be expected, he supposed. Lady Une…

He didn't think Zechs was aware of his survival, not to mention his slipping double agents throughout his ranks, though he might doubt, since he had never found a body. He was working on getting a few people working with Po too, but it was hard to locate them, and then once he did they didn't trust easily… He had been hoping for a lead with Schbeiker, but the unfortunate side effect about effective double agent management was that if you had gotten a mole in high enough that he was truly vital, it was better to give up the chance you had grabbed for later hope with him in a still higher place. So Schbeiker's escape was really a good thing, it kept her out of the Zechs' hands.

But he really wanted to shoot whoever had felt the need to put a bullet through Carmen's skull. So close and yet still so far.

However, Relena's reappearance was something to think about. He had no doubt that they had similar ideas in mind this time around, much the same as before, even if they had different ways of going about it. The girl showed promise, as she had before…

And with any luck, Zechs wouldn't realize exactly what kind of promise that meant for him until it was too late.

***

Amsterdam

Hilde couldn't help but feel… a little overwhelmed. Incredibly welcome, and somewhat embarrassed, with the way people were looking at her, but very foreign, and overall very confused.

Sin wasn't due to have her baby for another few months, they'd all laughed when she asked… and proceeded directly into lewd jokes that Sin had smacked at them for, despite her broad grin. They were a comfortable group, and attentive, offering anything she wanted - outside of a tv, which was apparently some kind of joke. Luc even mentioned that they were making sure nothing led the Regime here, though she imagined that was far more in their own interest than hers… harboring a fugitive generally didn't make anybody look good. They tried to use English in front of her, but it was obvious that they spoke Dutch more easily… and just as obvious that `Chaos' must also speak the language, which lowered her hopes of him being anyone she actually knew. Though this was most certainly a nice reprieve from a cell, and could even be counted as a sort of vacation, she supposed.

So when she heard them call out the name and looked to where Sin was pointing, she smiled, ready to greet whoever it was with whatever affiliation with her he claimed, her heart stopped. It couldn't be…

He was taller, if still short for his age, and his style of clothes were different… his face had matured, but she knew hers had too… She stood, though her knees felt like they wouldn't support her. No, it just looks like him, it couldn't be-

He met her eyes… and those really hadn't changed.

“Duo!”