Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wasurenai yo - I won’t forget ❯ Chapter 1
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: priscel 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Drama / Action / Shounen | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.09.2006 | Updated On: 09.26.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 762 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Drama / Action / Shounen | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.09.2006 | Updated On: 09.26.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 762 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimers: I garner no profit from this fic. I own nothing but the clothes on my back and Bobo, if the g-boys were mine, I’d be in heaven.
Warnings: Angst, spoilers - Endless waltz alternate end- so AU, Mecha-ish, Shounen ai, character death?
Pairings: 1+2, 1+R, 3+4, 5xS, eventual 1x2, 3x4
AN: Editing frenzy ^_^
Wasurenai yo (I won’t forget)
by priscel
one
The pilots struggled to blunt the blows to and from their Gundams and protect the lives of the men under Barton’s thumb, though the mobile suit pilots made it clear they were ready to kill them. Their ammunition was running low and they all knew that their chances of getting out this situation and one of them making it to save Relena were getting slimmer by the moment as they took on more heavy fire.
The pilots tried to think of another plan of attack when Trowa’s guns clicked empty. Everything went into slow motion when another Gundam was detected over the Barton shelter. Duo smiled, recognizing the unidentified Gundam as Wing. He unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the taut muscles in his back slowly relax. They were suddenly rocked violently in their suits as the shockwave from the blast hit them.
Once the shimmer began to fade, Quatre’s image popped up in a small square on their screens. They waited as the clicking of the keys on Quatre’s console sounded loud in the thick silence of their cockpits. Quatre’s soft voice roused them out of their semi-trance like states and informed them of what they were sure the Bartons knew as well.
“The shield’s integrity is at 70... 68 percent and dropping.”
“That’s my partner.” Duo proclaimed proudly with a heavy feeling over his chest as he watched Wing pause then fire the second shot. The pressure increased, making him feel uneasy. He punched up the image of Wing as he mentally computed that Heero was firing at maximum strength in 30 second intervals. His mouth went dry as he took in the state of Heero’s Gundam- Wing was falling apart. Seconds later, he watched as Wing was bombarded with shell fire and was unable to fire back. Duo yelled over the com. He didn’t know what he had said, but it got the other pilots’ attention. They saw more mobile suits coming out of the shelter and immediately open fire on their fellow pilot. They watched in disbelief as Wing lost its arm.
“We got to help him!” Duo’s fingers were already working on his console, re-routing auxiliary systems and the power from his cloak to give his beam scythe the extra boost it needed. He punched angrily at the console, moving panels to rewire his Gundam. A grim smile settled over his face as he watched his power levels fluctuate, ‘If the beam scythe burns out, I’ll bring those suits down with my buddy’s bare hands if I have to.’
“With what Duo?! We have nothing left.” Quatre stressed trying to reach him.
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to stand here and watch them kill him!” Duo kicked the side of the console and Scythe’s power level shot up to 76 percent. He grinned, nothing like the old mechanic’s boot to get things jump-started.
Quatre’s eyes widen at the thought that Duo intended to kill the MS pilots. “You can’t, Duo.”
“I know that Quat. I won’t kill the bastards, but I wish someone could tell them to be thankful that death doesn’t want their hides today.” With that said, he fired his boosters and thrust his Gundam through the indecisive suits that stood around him, swiping up one of their Gattling guns and shooting.
“Duo!” Quatre called again.
“You better pray to whateva God you believe in when Death comes knocking!” Quatre groaned in relief after hearing Duo’s maniacal laughter over the com, even though his empathy told him that Duo wasn’t going in with suicide in mind.
Quatre shared a long quiet moment with Trowa, looking over the face of his friend who gave him a small smile and a nod. Using his last shotel, Quatre struck down the suits near him with two swift debilitating blows. He took up one of their beam cannons and fought to catch up to Duo. Trowa stood before the rest of the suits ready to cover his comrades’ backs, when Zechs came to his side.
The battle continued. They had been so busy trying to divert and disarm the mobile suits that they hadn’t seen Heero fire the third shot until they heard Quatre’s voice over the com.
“Heero!”
Four sequential gasps followed Quatre’s cry, the amount of grief and horror inflected in Quatre’s voice struck the pilots like a shotgun hit to the chest. All movement ceased as Wing Zero exploded outward; pieces shooting in smoking streaks toward the ground, their crash sites hidden by the explosion from the Barton shelter. No one noticed, through the smoke and heated air, as a lone battered and bruised figure tumbled out of his still smoking cockpit.
ooooooooooooo~~~~~~~~
Inside the crumbling Barton shelter, the high-strung aristocrat was draped over a control panel. His hands worked, as his subordinates ducked for cover from the falling concrete and the spark of live wire. A manic gleam filled his beady eyes, his body jerked when a body fell into him after being struck by a chunk of ceiling, with a grunt he pushed it to the floor. His eye twitched as he typed and soon the line of his lips became non-existent as he smiled at the decreasing numbers on the screen.
‘And Zechs thought he stopped my back up plan,’ he thought scoffing at how Zechs had destroy MO-3. He’d succeed one way or another in having the Barton name back where it rightfully belonged. He gripped the panel, his head spinning when he realized that his dead subordinate hadn’t completely blocked him from that fallen piece of ceiling earlier as he wiped away the small trickle of blood from the side of his head.
“Good for nothing,” he muttered darkly while cradling his head with one hand when one of his men shouted about another Gundams’ arrival.
He gripped the remote to stop the count down as he ran up to the large view screen and stared in disbelief. He was losing and his soldiers refused to move on the civilians surrounding them. This was not how he imagined it. His family were the true sovereign rulers of this world, he reached out and called to Mariemaia.
Relena stood her ground against Dekim and everything happen faster than she thought possible: Dekim was firing at her, she was pushed and now holding a bleeding Mariemaia. She cursed herself for being stupid and letting the little girl push her out of the line of fire. She buried her face in baby-soft, reddish bourbon colored hair when she jerked at the second shot going off. She looked up in time to see a stream of blood flying from Dekim’s head as he fell. Then Heero was there, her heart fluttered when his gun clicked empty and Mariemaia became a heavy weight in her arms. She gasped out his name, already up and moving toward him, when she saw him falling.
Commander Une caught Mariemaia, sending a glare at Relena before she shouted for the doctor. Her ear twitched when one Barton’s men made a panicked sound as he tried to bring back up the satellite sensors.
“God.” He mumbled but it was loud in the silent room.
“What is it?” Une laid Mariemaia gently on the Doctor’s lap and went over to the only seated person in the room. She walked over and saw the screen over the man’s shoulder reading ‘access denied’. Her eyes widen at the decreasing numbers and the rapidly falling, large blip on the screen. She stared at the still body of Dekim, the line of her mouth firmed. She squeezed the man’s shoulder, stopping his frantic efforts and bringing his attention to her. “Patch me through to this frequency.”
oooooooooooo~~~~~~~~
Quatre’s smiling image sent a wave of relief through the pilots. Duo and others knew that because of his space heart, Quatre wouldn’t be able to hide it if Heero was dead. Yet, their reprieve was short lived when Commander Une appeared on all their screens.
“You don’t see it yet but you should ....” suddenly all their sensors beeped as she continued, “We thought that we had stopped Dekim’s plan to drop colony x-18999 on Earth but it seems he set up remote access to the colony from this shelter.”
“Get to the point, Lady.” Zechs’ skepticism plain in his voice as he ignored the icy look Une sent his way.
“As we speak, we have 15 minutes before a square mile chunk of colony enters the Earth’s atmosphere and its impact plunges us into unending darkness.” She said it so solemnly that Duo wondered what had changed the Lady so much for her to be the complete opposite of the bun wearing, megalomaniac they had dealt with during the war.
“Yea then we have what? Five minutes, if we can’t slow it down enough to save Mother nature from causing her own demise via gravity.”
Une nodded, the braided pilot sounded flippant but that tone didn’t reach his eyes. She couldn’t help the slight twist in the corner of her mouth at the braided pilot’s way of saying things. “We need a plan and fast. Damages?”
Both Quatre and Trowa shook their heads, their Gundams were out of fire power and too damaged to be of much use.
“From its trajectory, there’s no way we would be able to intercept it before it breaks Earth’s atmosphere.” Quatre said dismally, the defeated sound was strange coming from the usually upbeat blond.
“Then we have to do it as it falls.” Wu Fei broke in, ignoring the murmur of disbelief in the room and smiling inside as glimpsed the contemplative expression on his braided comrade’s face. The Commander silenced the commotion around her with one look, while Wu Fei assessed his damages. He could hold and fire his beam cannons in two constant pulses for a maximum of one minute before they needed to recharge and in that time he wouldn’t be able to get all the pieces from his initial blasts, he told them this. Those pieces could still level cities, and it was a risk they were willing to take.
“I’m the fastest, I should be able to slice up those pieces while you continue to concentrate on the larger ones. Quat let us know if its acceleration fluctuates.” Quatre nodded to Duo, catching onto the possibility that the chunk had a guidance system with maneuverability. If that was so, then they would really be in trouble.
“Good, I’ll send up the fastest Serpents.”
“I don’t know about that Lady. There are probably Barton loyalists who’d love to take out one of us if you give them the chance.”
Commander Une, shook her head knowingly at his use of her familiar title and gave Duo a small smile. “Yes that’s one of the dangers involved but we need those extra guns.”
There was no time for argument, and he knew that they’d be lucky if they’d make it before the chunk breached the surface. He swallowed his uneasiness with a nod, “Fine. Send what you got.” With that Duo and Wu Fei took off.
“Don’t worry, Duo and Wu Fei, we’ve got you covered.” Sally’s smiling voice came over the com when they detected her, Noin and Zechs moving in on their position with six unfriendlies behind them.
“Onna, what are you doing here?”
“Now, I can’t let you guys have all the glory!” She laughed and winked at Duo over the com. “Nor the fame from the daredevil impossibility of it.” Wu Fei snorted with a small upward twist of his lips. She smirked and gunned the boosters of the Serpent she flew to nudge Wu Fei before he could make his retort.
“Onna!”
“We specialize in the impossible, y’know.” Duo laughed, shutting off the emergency light that told him that one of his flight servos was overheating. “Well, they say luck is a lady, so Sally rub off some of that luck on us will ya?”
She laughed. “Working on it!”
“This is not the time for this nonsense. Onna you’re becoming as bad as Maxwell.” Wu Fei grumbled as he was jostled in his Gundam again.
“Thanks for the compliment Woofers!” He gave Duo a mock Yuy glare before he sighed in defeat. The banter and antics from the two were not slowing their ascent or taking them off course and he took it for what it was, a relief from the very real possibility that none of them would be able to stop the second attempt to bring Earth up in flames and the countless lives it would take. He shook his head, ‘all set into motion to glorify the Barton name.’ He berated himself for his ill-made choice earlier on.
Two minutes left from the predicted time, they stopped at 200 km above the Earth’s surface and decided this would give them a little space to work with since they knew they couldn’t take out the whole thing on the first couple of tries. Duo tramped down on his discomfort from having six unfriendlies at their backs and noticed the sweat that dripped down his face. He checked his air; he forgot he had re-routed the power to that system as well.
“Maxwell?” Wu Fei queried, noticing his friends’ sweating face.
Duo smiled at Wu Fei, re-routing power to his life support as he began to breathe easier. “S’ok, Fei. Just needed to check my power levels.” It wasn’t a lie, not really.
Wu Fei narrowed his eyes at the braided pilot but Duo was saved from further questioning when their proximity alarms went off and Quatre’s voice was heard over the com giving the status of chunk’s position. Wu Fei powered up his guns and Duo distanced himself, as did the others, to various points around Wu Fei.
Wu Fei began firing, slowing the chunk’s descent with the force of the blasts. The moment Wu Fei cut his cannons to recharge them, the Serpents fired their canons and waited anxiously for Wu Fei’s next shot, blasting off pieces that Duo and Zechs sliced up if they were too large. Wu Fei fired again, all the suits clearing the blast range. It went on like this for several minutes, which seemed like an eternity to the pilots. They all jerked when one of the Serpent pilots suddenly laughed madly then shut off his com link.
“Spencer?” Zechs called, moving to the position the pilot abandon and blasting through the chunk the pilot ignored. They didn’t have time for this, the chunk was now half its original size, it decelerated and it looked like they were going to make it. He turned to intercept Spencer but he was too late. The pilot had fired his boosters and rammed into Wu Fei’s Gundam.
“‘Fei!” Duo shouted, jerking out of the way when the beam nearly hit him. He saw Wu Fei jostled in his cockpit and then his external cams should the reason why, there was a Serpent clinging to him.
“No Duo.” Wu Fei yelled when he saw his braided friend make a move in his direction. He wouldn’t have them abandon their posts for something he could handle on his own.
Duo nodded and cursed when the chunk split in two, Quatre’s voice inaudible to him as he watched the heavier portion increase in its acceleration and angle in a tangent to its original trajectory. The other piece seemed to jerk back up as if caught in an updraft. He spared one final glimpse at Wu Fei to see Sally and Zechs coming to his aid, despite his friend’s protests that he could handle it, before he went after the chunk.
He cursed at his luck when his Scythe flickered out. He realized the power level in his beam scythe was far to low, even if he re-routed his life support, to do any damage to the renegade piece. He flew in front of it and braced his Gundams’ feet against it and fired his thrusters in reverse. He grimaced when his Gundam groaned under the stress but the haul beneath its feet held against the pressure.
“Hang in there, buddy,” he mumbled distractedly, nodding when the descent slowed and rubbing away the nose bleed from the speed. He knew that if he kept this up for much longer, it would burn out his only means to stay airborne. He thought about the self-detonation device (SDD) again. His eyes flitted over his heat sensors with another curse when the renegade piece began to break apart. His eyes widen when he realized it wasn’t from the force of the fall or the strain of his Gundam against the haul. He brought up several images of it and his eyes ran over it as he gasped. It wasn’t randomly falling apart like meteors would in Earth’s atmosphere, but separating sectionally, into pieces large enough to destroy areas the size of Rhode Island. It was programmed.
“Wu Fei! It’s program-“
“Maxwell you’re getting too cl-“
Duo punched his console, the damned thing was sending out a dampening field. He thought about the SDD, his mind already working up the probability of it being a usable power source. It was powerful enough to destroy a Gundam, then it would work. He winced as he moved a three-inch thick, reinforced gundanium panel behind his seat and then another panel, wincing when the edge of the panel cut into his hands. He ignored the pain, working the calibrations mentally and mouthing the end result unconsciously as he dug through auxiliary wiring and re-routed power lines into the SDD lines that ran deep beneath his seat. His cut hands shook with effort as he connected the final power relay to the flat panels in Deathscythe’s right hand that served as a point of recharge for the beam scythe. He knew it would ruin Deathscythe’s power conduits by the time this was all over but it didn’t matter.
He hoped they wouldn’t need the Gundams after this.
The minutes of precious time it took him to make all the adjustments was rewarded. He pulled on his trademark grin when the beam scythe flared and pulsed ever 20 seconds with energy. He scanned the chunk and stabbed scythe down into the left side of it. The chunk stopped separating and small explosions shook the mass as it jerked upward like a puppet on strings.
“...Maxw...read?...”
“Negative ... visual...”
“Goddamn it, Duo! Answer me!”
Duo whooped. “The mouth on you ‘Fei! Remind me to tell Sally to give you a little more nookie in the morning.”
“Maxwell!”
Duo snickered, he could hear the blush in Wu Fei’s voice. “‘Fei they were programmed to fall to pieces and I think I just destroyed the internal computer since I’m able to transmit now.” The smile never left his face or his voice though the strain could clearly be heard.
“Hn, Quatre told us.”
“‘Fei, there are too many pieces, I’ll take with me as many as I can.”
“What?! Maxwell!” Wu Fei yelled at the image of his friend, as his eyes widen at the red lights that continued to flash across Duo’s face. His hard-pressed lips were the only indication of his inner turmoil while he kept a straight face.
He bowed to his friend in acceptance and gratitude; he was doing an honourable thing. “XieXie” (1).
“Duo, NO! We’ll work at aiding the crash site victims.” Quatre argued.
“Winner!” Wu Fei glared at Quatre’s stressed image, he was usually able to keep it together better than this.
“‘Fei.” He needed to talk to his little brother. Duo smiled, letting the grin drop and along with it his mask, he looked so tired. “Quat, I have to destroy this chunk at least. It’s the largest piece and I don’t have enough power.”
Quatre’s bottom lip quivered on screen, he didn’t care if he was being selfish. They had come through it all together and they deserved to live like everyone else. “B-But one of the Serpents can lend you a cannon... Sally’s four minutes away. Or Wu Fei can blast it-“
“Not enough time and not from this range the blast wouldn’t do jack shit but add to the problems.” Duo sighed and stopped a cough that left a metallic tang in his mouth. “Quat, I have to do this. If it saves one city then what’s one life compared to thousands.” Duo withdrew his beam scythe and flew down to the bottom of the deteriorating chunk, matching its descent. He sighed again, his eyes darting away from the stricken aquamarines set on his face. Gods did it hurt to hear Quatre in such pain for him. He steeled himself for more dissuading words from his blond friend.
“Duo.” Duo stared in surprise at Trowa who nodded to him with Quatre snug against his side.
“Semper fi.” Duo said proudly with a sad smile before he spoke again, “See you soon, I doubt Hell will want me to stay too long with my buddy ‘Scythe taking up all the space.” The last image they saw from him was his devil-may-care grin before he cut his coms. He turned up his battle music, clicking through the tracks and stopping when he heard:
You hide and choke on all the issues of your time...
You’ll never save the world if all you do is whine...
Duo cocked his head to the side and smiled a face splitting grin as he blared the music in his cockpit on the chorus opening line, So I say hell yeah! (2) It was what he needed, the vibrations of the music alone helped him ignore the pain of flying at an untried speed for him and the pressure... He took labored breaths as he checked to make sure that his beam scythe was indeed at full power, as he flew toward the chunk.
The other pilots, who were chasing and blasting at the chunks, felt the explosion before they saw it. Surreal green flames erupted all around the chunk to their far left before it blew to pieces. At the same time inside the Barton shelter, Quatre collapsed with a strangled cry and a few feet away, a half-conscious Heero found his voice. He had heard everything from his position in Relena’s arms as he weakly reached out....
“Duo.”
~~~~~~~~
(1) Mandarin Chinese for ‘thank you’.
(2) ‘Rock & Roll Revolution’ by Saliva
Warnings: Angst, spoilers - Endless waltz alternate end- so AU, Mecha-ish, Shounen ai, character death?
Pairings: 1+2, 1+R, 3+4, 5xS, eventual 1x2, 3x4
AN: Editing frenzy ^_^
Wasurenai yo (I won’t forget)
by priscel
one
The pilots struggled to blunt the blows to and from their Gundams and protect the lives of the men under Barton’s thumb, though the mobile suit pilots made it clear they were ready to kill them. Their ammunition was running low and they all knew that their chances of getting out this situation and one of them making it to save Relena were getting slimmer by the moment as they took on more heavy fire.
The pilots tried to think of another plan of attack when Trowa’s guns clicked empty. Everything went into slow motion when another Gundam was detected over the Barton shelter. Duo smiled, recognizing the unidentified Gundam as Wing. He unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the taut muscles in his back slowly relax. They were suddenly rocked violently in their suits as the shockwave from the blast hit them.
Once the shimmer began to fade, Quatre’s image popped up in a small square on their screens. They waited as the clicking of the keys on Quatre’s console sounded loud in the thick silence of their cockpits. Quatre’s soft voice roused them out of their semi-trance like states and informed them of what they were sure the Bartons knew as well.
“The shield’s integrity is at 70... 68 percent and dropping.”
“That’s my partner.” Duo proclaimed proudly with a heavy feeling over his chest as he watched Wing pause then fire the second shot. The pressure increased, making him feel uneasy. He punched up the image of Wing as he mentally computed that Heero was firing at maximum strength in 30 second intervals. His mouth went dry as he took in the state of Heero’s Gundam- Wing was falling apart. Seconds later, he watched as Wing was bombarded with shell fire and was unable to fire back. Duo yelled over the com. He didn’t know what he had said, but it got the other pilots’ attention. They saw more mobile suits coming out of the shelter and immediately open fire on their fellow pilot. They watched in disbelief as Wing lost its arm.
“We got to help him!” Duo’s fingers were already working on his console, re-routing auxiliary systems and the power from his cloak to give his beam scythe the extra boost it needed. He punched angrily at the console, moving panels to rewire his Gundam. A grim smile settled over his face as he watched his power levels fluctuate, ‘If the beam scythe burns out, I’ll bring those suits down with my buddy’s bare hands if I have to.’
“With what Duo?! We have nothing left.” Quatre stressed trying to reach him.
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to stand here and watch them kill him!” Duo kicked the side of the console and Scythe’s power level shot up to 76 percent. He grinned, nothing like the old mechanic’s boot to get things jump-started.
Quatre’s eyes widen at the thought that Duo intended to kill the MS pilots. “You can’t, Duo.”
“I know that Quat. I won’t kill the bastards, but I wish someone could tell them to be thankful that death doesn’t want their hides today.” With that said, he fired his boosters and thrust his Gundam through the indecisive suits that stood around him, swiping up one of their Gattling guns and shooting.
“Duo!” Quatre called again.
“You better pray to whateva God you believe in when Death comes knocking!” Quatre groaned in relief after hearing Duo’s maniacal laughter over the com, even though his empathy told him that Duo wasn’t going in with suicide in mind.
Quatre shared a long quiet moment with Trowa, looking over the face of his friend who gave him a small smile and a nod. Using his last shotel, Quatre struck down the suits near him with two swift debilitating blows. He took up one of their beam cannons and fought to catch up to Duo. Trowa stood before the rest of the suits ready to cover his comrades’ backs, when Zechs came to his side.
The battle continued. They had been so busy trying to divert and disarm the mobile suits that they hadn’t seen Heero fire the third shot until they heard Quatre’s voice over the com.
“Heero!”
Four sequential gasps followed Quatre’s cry, the amount of grief and horror inflected in Quatre’s voice struck the pilots like a shotgun hit to the chest. All movement ceased as Wing Zero exploded outward; pieces shooting in smoking streaks toward the ground, their crash sites hidden by the explosion from the Barton shelter. No one noticed, through the smoke and heated air, as a lone battered and bruised figure tumbled out of his still smoking cockpit.
ooooooooooooo~~~~~~~~
Inside the crumbling Barton shelter, the high-strung aristocrat was draped over a control panel. His hands worked, as his subordinates ducked for cover from the falling concrete and the spark of live wire. A manic gleam filled his beady eyes, his body jerked when a body fell into him after being struck by a chunk of ceiling, with a grunt he pushed it to the floor. His eye twitched as he typed and soon the line of his lips became non-existent as he smiled at the decreasing numbers on the screen.
‘And Zechs thought he stopped my back up plan,’ he thought scoffing at how Zechs had destroy MO-3. He’d succeed one way or another in having the Barton name back where it rightfully belonged. He gripped the panel, his head spinning when he realized that his dead subordinate hadn’t completely blocked him from that fallen piece of ceiling earlier as he wiped away the small trickle of blood from the side of his head.
“Good for nothing,” he muttered darkly while cradling his head with one hand when one of his men shouted about another Gundams’ arrival.
He gripped the remote to stop the count down as he ran up to the large view screen and stared in disbelief. He was losing and his soldiers refused to move on the civilians surrounding them. This was not how he imagined it. His family were the true sovereign rulers of this world, he reached out and called to Mariemaia.
Relena stood her ground against Dekim and everything happen faster than she thought possible: Dekim was firing at her, she was pushed and now holding a bleeding Mariemaia. She cursed herself for being stupid and letting the little girl push her out of the line of fire. She buried her face in baby-soft, reddish bourbon colored hair when she jerked at the second shot going off. She looked up in time to see a stream of blood flying from Dekim’s head as he fell. Then Heero was there, her heart fluttered when his gun clicked empty and Mariemaia became a heavy weight in her arms. She gasped out his name, already up and moving toward him, when she saw him falling.
Commander Une caught Mariemaia, sending a glare at Relena before she shouted for the doctor. Her ear twitched when one Barton’s men made a panicked sound as he tried to bring back up the satellite sensors.
“God.” He mumbled but it was loud in the silent room.
“What is it?” Une laid Mariemaia gently on the Doctor’s lap and went over to the only seated person in the room. She walked over and saw the screen over the man’s shoulder reading ‘access denied’. Her eyes widen at the decreasing numbers and the rapidly falling, large blip on the screen. She stared at the still body of Dekim, the line of her mouth firmed. She squeezed the man’s shoulder, stopping his frantic efforts and bringing his attention to her. “Patch me through to this frequency.”
oooooooooooo~~~~~~~~
Quatre’s smiling image sent a wave of relief through the pilots. Duo and others knew that because of his space heart, Quatre wouldn’t be able to hide it if Heero was dead. Yet, their reprieve was short lived when Commander Une appeared on all their screens.
“You don’t see it yet but you should ....” suddenly all their sensors beeped as she continued, “We thought that we had stopped Dekim’s plan to drop colony x-18999 on Earth but it seems he set up remote access to the colony from this shelter.”
“Get to the point, Lady.” Zechs’ skepticism plain in his voice as he ignored the icy look Une sent his way.
“As we speak, we have 15 minutes before a square mile chunk of colony enters the Earth’s atmosphere and its impact plunges us into unending darkness.” She said it so solemnly that Duo wondered what had changed the Lady so much for her to be the complete opposite of the bun wearing, megalomaniac they had dealt with during the war.
“Yea then we have what? Five minutes, if we can’t slow it down enough to save Mother nature from causing her own demise via gravity.”
Une nodded, the braided pilot sounded flippant but that tone didn’t reach his eyes. She couldn’t help the slight twist in the corner of her mouth at the braided pilot’s way of saying things. “We need a plan and fast. Damages?”
Both Quatre and Trowa shook their heads, their Gundams were out of fire power and too damaged to be of much use.
“From its trajectory, there’s no way we would be able to intercept it before it breaks Earth’s atmosphere.” Quatre said dismally, the defeated sound was strange coming from the usually upbeat blond.
“Then we have to do it as it falls.” Wu Fei broke in, ignoring the murmur of disbelief in the room and smiling inside as glimpsed the contemplative expression on his braided comrade’s face. The Commander silenced the commotion around her with one look, while Wu Fei assessed his damages. He could hold and fire his beam cannons in two constant pulses for a maximum of one minute before they needed to recharge and in that time he wouldn’t be able to get all the pieces from his initial blasts, he told them this. Those pieces could still level cities, and it was a risk they were willing to take.
“I’m the fastest, I should be able to slice up those pieces while you continue to concentrate on the larger ones. Quat let us know if its acceleration fluctuates.” Quatre nodded to Duo, catching onto the possibility that the chunk had a guidance system with maneuverability. If that was so, then they would really be in trouble.
“Good, I’ll send up the fastest Serpents.”
“I don’t know about that Lady. There are probably Barton loyalists who’d love to take out one of us if you give them the chance.”
Commander Une, shook her head knowingly at his use of her familiar title and gave Duo a small smile. “Yes that’s one of the dangers involved but we need those extra guns.”
There was no time for argument, and he knew that they’d be lucky if they’d make it before the chunk breached the surface. He swallowed his uneasiness with a nod, “Fine. Send what you got.” With that Duo and Wu Fei took off.
“Don’t worry, Duo and Wu Fei, we’ve got you covered.” Sally’s smiling voice came over the com when they detected her, Noin and Zechs moving in on their position with six unfriendlies behind them.
“Onna, what are you doing here?”
“Now, I can’t let you guys have all the glory!” She laughed and winked at Duo over the com. “Nor the fame from the daredevil impossibility of it.” Wu Fei snorted with a small upward twist of his lips. She smirked and gunned the boosters of the Serpent she flew to nudge Wu Fei before he could make his retort.
“Onna!”
“We specialize in the impossible, y’know.” Duo laughed, shutting off the emergency light that told him that one of his flight servos was overheating. “Well, they say luck is a lady, so Sally rub off some of that luck on us will ya?”
She laughed. “Working on it!”
“This is not the time for this nonsense. Onna you’re becoming as bad as Maxwell.” Wu Fei grumbled as he was jostled in his Gundam again.
“Thanks for the compliment Woofers!” He gave Duo a mock Yuy glare before he sighed in defeat. The banter and antics from the two were not slowing their ascent or taking them off course and he took it for what it was, a relief from the very real possibility that none of them would be able to stop the second attempt to bring Earth up in flames and the countless lives it would take. He shook his head, ‘all set into motion to glorify the Barton name.’ He berated himself for his ill-made choice earlier on.
Two minutes left from the predicted time, they stopped at 200 km above the Earth’s surface and decided this would give them a little space to work with since they knew they couldn’t take out the whole thing on the first couple of tries. Duo tramped down on his discomfort from having six unfriendlies at their backs and noticed the sweat that dripped down his face. He checked his air; he forgot he had re-routed the power to that system as well.
“Maxwell?” Wu Fei queried, noticing his friends’ sweating face.
Duo smiled at Wu Fei, re-routing power to his life support as he began to breathe easier. “S’ok, Fei. Just needed to check my power levels.” It wasn’t a lie, not really.
Wu Fei narrowed his eyes at the braided pilot but Duo was saved from further questioning when their proximity alarms went off and Quatre’s voice was heard over the com giving the status of chunk’s position. Wu Fei powered up his guns and Duo distanced himself, as did the others, to various points around Wu Fei.
Wu Fei began firing, slowing the chunk’s descent with the force of the blasts. The moment Wu Fei cut his cannons to recharge them, the Serpents fired their canons and waited anxiously for Wu Fei’s next shot, blasting off pieces that Duo and Zechs sliced up if they were too large. Wu Fei fired again, all the suits clearing the blast range. It went on like this for several minutes, which seemed like an eternity to the pilots. They all jerked when one of the Serpent pilots suddenly laughed madly then shut off his com link.
“Spencer?” Zechs called, moving to the position the pilot abandon and blasting through the chunk the pilot ignored. They didn’t have time for this, the chunk was now half its original size, it decelerated and it looked like they were going to make it. He turned to intercept Spencer but he was too late. The pilot had fired his boosters and rammed into Wu Fei’s Gundam.
“‘Fei!” Duo shouted, jerking out of the way when the beam nearly hit him. He saw Wu Fei jostled in his cockpit and then his external cams should the reason why, there was a Serpent clinging to him.
“No Duo.” Wu Fei yelled when he saw his braided friend make a move in his direction. He wouldn’t have them abandon their posts for something he could handle on his own.
Duo nodded and cursed when the chunk split in two, Quatre’s voice inaudible to him as he watched the heavier portion increase in its acceleration and angle in a tangent to its original trajectory. The other piece seemed to jerk back up as if caught in an updraft. He spared one final glimpse at Wu Fei to see Sally and Zechs coming to his aid, despite his friend’s protests that he could handle it, before he went after the chunk.
He cursed at his luck when his Scythe flickered out. He realized the power level in his beam scythe was far to low, even if he re-routed his life support, to do any damage to the renegade piece. He flew in front of it and braced his Gundams’ feet against it and fired his thrusters in reverse. He grimaced when his Gundam groaned under the stress but the haul beneath its feet held against the pressure.
“Hang in there, buddy,” he mumbled distractedly, nodding when the descent slowed and rubbing away the nose bleed from the speed. He knew that if he kept this up for much longer, it would burn out his only means to stay airborne. He thought about the self-detonation device (SDD) again. His eyes flitted over his heat sensors with another curse when the renegade piece began to break apart. His eyes widen when he realized it wasn’t from the force of the fall or the strain of his Gundam against the haul. He brought up several images of it and his eyes ran over it as he gasped. It wasn’t randomly falling apart like meteors would in Earth’s atmosphere, but separating sectionally, into pieces large enough to destroy areas the size of Rhode Island. It was programmed.
“Wu Fei! It’s program-“
“Maxwell you’re getting too cl-“
Duo punched his console, the damned thing was sending out a dampening field. He thought about the SDD, his mind already working up the probability of it being a usable power source. It was powerful enough to destroy a Gundam, then it would work. He winced as he moved a three-inch thick, reinforced gundanium panel behind his seat and then another panel, wincing when the edge of the panel cut into his hands. He ignored the pain, working the calibrations mentally and mouthing the end result unconsciously as he dug through auxiliary wiring and re-routed power lines into the SDD lines that ran deep beneath his seat. His cut hands shook with effort as he connected the final power relay to the flat panels in Deathscythe’s right hand that served as a point of recharge for the beam scythe. He knew it would ruin Deathscythe’s power conduits by the time this was all over but it didn’t matter.
He hoped they wouldn’t need the Gundams after this.
The minutes of precious time it took him to make all the adjustments was rewarded. He pulled on his trademark grin when the beam scythe flared and pulsed ever 20 seconds with energy. He scanned the chunk and stabbed scythe down into the left side of it. The chunk stopped separating and small explosions shook the mass as it jerked upward like a puppet on strings.
“...Maxw...read?...”
“Negative ... visual...”
“Goddamn it, Duo! Answer me!”
Duo whooped. “The mouth on you ‘Fei! Remind me to tell Sally to give you a little more nookie in the morning.”
“Maxwell!”
Duo snickered, he could hear the blush in Wu Fei’s voice. “‘Fei they were programmed to fall to pieces and I think I just destroyed the internal computer since I’m able to transmit now.” The smile never left his face or his voice though the strain could clearly be heard.
“Hn, Quatre told us.”
“‘Fei, there are too many pieces, I’ll take with me as many as I can.”
“What?! Maxwell!” Wu Fei yelled at the image of his friend, as his eyes widen at the red lights that continued to flash across Duo’s face. His hard-pressed lips were the only indication of his inner turmoil while he kept a straight face.
He bowed to his friend in acceptance and gratitude; he was doing an honourable thing. “XieXie” (1).
“Duo, NO! We’ll work at aiding the crash site victims.” Quatre argued.
“Winner!” Wu Fei glared at Quatre’s stressed image, he was usually able to keep it together better than this.
“‘Fei.” He needed to talk to his little brother. Duo smiled, letting the grin drop and along with it his mask, he looked so tired. “Quat, I have to destroy this chunk at least. It’s the largest piece and I don’t have enough power.”
Quatre’s bottom lip quivered on screen, he didn’t care if he was being selfish. They had come through it all together and they deserved to live like everyone else. “B-But one of the Serpents can lend you a cannon... Sally’s four minutes away. Or Wu Fei can blast it-“
“Not enough time and not from this range the blast wouldn’t do jack shit but add to the problems.” Duo sighed and stopped a cough that left a metallic tang in his mouth. “Quat, I have to do this. If it saves one city then what’s one life compared to thousands.” Duo withdrew his beam scythe and flew down to the bottom of the deteriorating chunk, matching its descent. He sighed again, his eyes darting away from the stricken aquamarines set on his face. Gods did it hurt to hear Quatre in such pain for him. He steeled himself for more dissuading words from his blond friend.
“Duo.” Duo stared in surprise at Trowa who nodded to him with Quatre snug against his side.
“Semper fi.” Duo said proudly with a sad smile before he spoke again, “See you soon, I doubt Hell will want me to stay too long with my buddy ‘Scythe taking up all the space.” The last image they saw from him was his devil-may-care grin before he cut his coms. He turned up his battle music, clicking through the tracks and stopping when he heard:
You hide and choke on all the issues of your time...
You’ll never save the world if all you do is whine...
Duo cocked his head to the side and smiled a face splitting grin as he blared the music in his cockpit on the chorus opening line, So I say hell yeah! (2) It was what he needed, the vibrations of the music alone helped him ignore the pain of flying at an untried speed for him and the pressure... He took labored breaths as he checked to make sure that his beam scythe was indeed at full power, as he flew toward the chunk.
The other pilots, who were chasing and blasting at the chunks, felt the explosion before they saw it. Surreal green flames erupted all around the chunk to their far left before it blew to pieces. At the same time inside the Barton shelter, Quatre collapsed with a strangled cry and a few feet away, a half-conscious Heero found his voice. He had heard everything from his position in Relena’s arms as he weakly reached out....
“Duo.”
~~~~~~~~
(1) Mandarin Chinese for ‘thank you’.
(2) ‘Rock & Roll Revolution’ by Saliva