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| Disclaimer: All Gundam Wing characters belong to Sotsu Agency Sunrise and Bandai. I only own this little fanfic though. |
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Treize Khushrenada exited from his private jet, accompanied by Lady Une. He glanced at the line up of mobile suits before him and rested his gaze at the large white suit that stood out from the rest. "So that's Tallgeese. Quite impressive." Treize remarked at the powerful suit. "It no doubt surpasses the models manufactured by Oz, provided someone is capable of piloting it." "Your Excellency, don't you think you are giving Colonel Zechs a bit too much power and freedom? He might get an attitude." The strict Lady Une commented. "Superior suits are for superior pilots. Any problem with that?" "No, Your Excellency." She replied but couldn't get over the feeling inside her. They entered the base and walked straight to the waiting room. The person being discussed earlier was in there with a lesser-ranking officer. Both of them saluted when Treize entered. He greeted them warmly in return. "Zechs, you've accomplished outstanding missions with great skills and marvels. I thank you for your excellent works." "I am just doing my best, wishing to fulfill your orders." The masked man replied. Treize smiled and turned to the other officer. "Lieutenant Noin, your merits in mobile suit pilot training and strategy planning are greatly appreciated. Lake Victoria is in very good hands under your command." "Your Excellency is too kind." The young woman bowed at the compliment. All the while, the silent Lady Une was thinking to herself bitterly. 'Why does His Excellency have to thank his own soldiers? And there're those who shamelessly accept his words.' "Lady, I believe you are holding a briefing session regarding the Gundams." Treize said. "Yes, it will start at 1600 hour, which is in five minutes." "Then I suggest you get to it." He nodded. "I need to talk to Zechs about something so he'll be there a little later." He was about to turn and leave when he noticed the hesitation of the masked man. He followed his gaze and found him looking at his fellow officer. "Oh, Lieutenant Noin, I'll need to talk to you as well." Lady Une was going to scold Noin for moving out too slowly when she heard this. She bowed to Treize and left the room alone, vexed. Treize led the two to his office and sat down in his large armchair. "Congratulation on your freeing of the Sanc Kingdom, my friend." Zechs was silent for a moment, then he replied. "I didn't do it. Noin was the one to thank for that." "Oh?" Treize raised an eyebrow. "Then it was Noin who piloted the Tallgeese?" He turned his gaze and fixed it upon the young woman. "Yes." Came the short and firm reply from Zechs. "I can't say this news is expected, but I'm not surprised. You've always prove your competence and talent as a pilot, Noin." Treize smiled. "Even though you destroyed the base against your principle of pacifism, it still amazes me when I think of your last mission before that." "Her last mission before that?" Zechs questioned and stole a quick glance at the very uncomfortable young woman beside him. "You didn't know about it, Zechs?" Treize was a bit surprised. He always thought there were no secrets between those two. They had always been very close and good friends since their Academy days. "In that mission, the Alliance base was completely demolished. Not even one man was able to escape, and none of our soldiers was hurt. She's never killed before that." "What?" Zechs couldn't think for a moment and only stared at Noin blankly. "What about all the missions she went on before?" "She only attacked the mobile suits so they couldn't be used anymore and got them to surrender." Treize said. "I must admit I really didn't expect such act from her when I received the mission report." "Hm..." Noin hesitated for a moment and cleared her throat before starting. "Actually, I didn't do anything in that mission." "What?" Both men jerked their heads toward her. Noin shifted nervously and answered. "When we got there, someone was already attacking the base. We simply took the ruined base after he left. After all, the mission objective was only to seize the base." "Then who did it? It surely wasn't any of our people." Treize asked. She was clearly struggling with herself now. Treize saw it and spoke softly. "You've accomplished the mission and nothing would change that." Noin bit her lip. "It was... a Gundam." "A Gundam!!" Both men exclaimed out loud. Zechs almost jumped. "How did you..." No one except Zechs Merquise the ace had survived after an encounter with the Gundams so far. "His mission was to destroy the base, so he spared us since we didn't interfere." Zechs could tell there was more to the story. He knew her too well. But he was not going to ask in front of Treize. He decided to drop the matter for now and question her later when he had a chance. "You are very lucky, Noin. I would be very sorry to lose such a talented officer as you." Treize only nodded at her reply. "Would you like to be the pilot of Tallgeese?" Zechs didn't say anything. He just looked at Noin quietly. It didn't matter to him if she was to take the suit. His mind was occupied by the thought of her first act of taking other people's lives in the mission that he was responsible for. He had stained her with his sins. "No." Noin shook her head. "Tallgeese belongs to Zechs. I only borrowed it." Treize looked her straight in the eyes as if trying to read her thoughts. "I see." He nodded. "Then all is settled. You may leave and attend the briefing now, Lieutenant." She bowed and left the room. Both men were silent for some time before Treize spoke up. "What are you going to do, now that the Sanc Kingdom is free, Zechs?" "I want to stay and fight for you a little longer." the masked soldier replied. "And I am most honoured to have you with me." Treize said. "By the way, aren't you going to take off that mask? There is no need for you to be Zechs Merquise anymore." "No. I still bring my hatred to the battlefield." He answered and left the room. When he entered the briefing room, he found Noin standing at the back, frowning. "What did I miss?" "They are transporting the Taurus to Siberia for installment of a new system. It'll be used as a bait to lure the Gundams out." Noin replied without taking her sight off the large monitor at the front of the room. Lady Une saw his entrance and continued to explain the plan. "Two routes will be set up for the transportation. Both will be heavily guarded, but one will be a decoy. This will split and divide their forces and making it easier for us." Images of the Gundams and their analycal data were brought up. "We've confirmed that there are five Gundams. For easy reference, we'll categorize them as Gundam Zero-one to Zero-five...." She went on giving details about each Gundam and what to do with them best, then she addressed the masked man at the back. "Colonel Zechs, you will be escorting in the air route in Tallgeese, is there a problem? Since you've faced 01 before, I thought you might want to finish the battle." "Of course." He replied matter-of-factly. "That's too dangerous. Let me go with you, Zechs. I'll take an Aries." Noin protested. "Lieutenant Noin, you are coming to the headquartre to assist me." Lady Une ordered. "That's convenient." Noin whispered under her breath. "If the mission fails, it all becomes Zechs' fault." "That suits me just fine, Noin. Actually, I was hoping you could stay at the HQ. This mission requires fast data transfer and I'll need your help there." He didn't want her to get into any more danger because of him. She's already done too much for him. Noin looked at him for a few second and raised her hand. "Sir, count on me."
All five Gundam pilots received the mission about the Taurus transportation. Wing and HeavyArms took the air route, while DeathScythe and Sandrock took the land route. The pilot of the Gundam Nataku was still too caught up in his defeat days ago to care about the mission. All went according to Lady Une's plan. The 50 Leos situated at the land route were easily defeated by the two Gundams. However, it was a decoy. The real transportation took place via air. Wing and HeavyArms caught on with the squads and were destroying the escorting MS when a white mobile suit showed up and intercepted Wing Gundam. Both pilots immediately recognized it as Tallgeese, the prototype of all MS models, including the Gundams. Wing and Tallgeese exchanged shots and slashes, trying to win the battle and get to their objective. HeavyArms went ahead for the transporting crew. Amid all the bullet shooting and beam sabre slashing, an announcement was sent out to both locations by Lady Une. "Stop fighting and resisting, Gundams! If you don't stop now, you will be responsible for the destruction of the colonies. Space fortress Barge's beam canons are all in position, ready to shoot down the colonies at order. Surrender and give up your Gundams!" This hard statement was responded by six astonished gasps and exclamation of "What?!" All of a sudden the Gundams stopped attacking and only shielded themselves from enemy MS attacks. "I can't believe they are using the colonies to threaten us!" A braided pilot yelled. "Colonel Une! This is dishonourable! You can fight, can't you?" Zechs shouted angrily. "I am not buffing. You have ten minutes to make your decision." Lady Une said coldly. "Colonel, please stop! His Excellency only wishes to deal with the rebel forces. He would not want the colonies be put on the line like this." A voice came through the comm unit since the comm link was still on in the Oz Headquarter. "The colonies are filthy and pathetic! They are worthless! And what do you know of the wishes of His Excellency!" A stern reply was heard, followed by an audible slap. "Hey! Don't you dare touch her!" Duo recognized the voice as Noin's. "Noin!" Zechs clenched his fists at the sound. The indifferent pilot he had been fighting with repeated the name a few times and narrowed his eyes, though Zechs was too absorbed in the business at hand to notice it. The staff in the control room stared at the two women arguing, unable to do or think at the moment, and left the comm system on for all to hear. "It's one thing to fight with honour and lose. It's another to win by playing dirty. Such action shames and wounds the true spirit of a soldier, as well as His Excellency's pride and honour." Noin wasn't backing out because of the slap. "Let them have the Taurus. We can always get back next time. Colonel, please don't do this." "Lieutenant, you are stepping out of your boundary by talking to a superior officer like this." Lady Une's tone was low and dangerous. "You do realize that you are subjected to military discipline and I can execute you right here and now." Just then, the image of an old man with special goggles and artificial arm appeared on the display screen of the control room. "It looks like another of Oz' dirty tricks. You guys would just do anything to be victorious, wouldn't you? I guess I have no choice but to surrender. I surrender, but I will not hand over the Gundams. I repeat. I surrender, but I will NOT hand over the Gundams." With that stated, the screen went blank. Lady Une was still trying to figure out what the old man meant by those words when one of the screens monitoring the battles caught her and everyone's attention. The cockpit of Wing Gundam opened as a young boy who couldn't be more than fifteen walked out with a small device in his hand. His face was emotionless. "Mission accepted." The boy said coldly, and pushed the button of the self-detonation device of the Gundam without any hesitation. Wing self-detonated right before everyone's eyes. The young pilot was blown some distance away and hit the ground with a thud due to the impact of the explosion. Time seemed to freeze at the moment. Everyone was too stunned to act. "No! Heero!" A whispered cry that was inaudible to the people in the control room was heard by the pilot of Tallgeese, since the headphone set on the person uttering the words was connected to his mech. HeavyArms came up and lifted the lifeless body of the young pilot. He looked at the white suit silently before Zechs told him to leave. The other Gundams fought and took off, and the whole mission was aborted. "The Gundams had retreated." One of the officers announced. "This is not the last with the Gundams." Lady Une growled. "And you too, Lieutenant Noin." "Colonel Une, I have His Excellency on the line here." Noin ignored her threat. "Let me have that!" Lady Une reached out to take the headphone set. Noin parried Une's hand and listened, then she narrowed her eyes. "His Excellency said for you to be be more graceful... about everything. More graceful, Lady Une."
Zechs and Noin stood by a truck as they monitored a crew picking up all the parts Wing had scattered when it exploded. "Are you planning to restore the Gundam?" Noin asked. "Yes. Even though it looks bad, but somehow I feel that the pilot is still alive. I can sense that we are destined to fight each other." "I hope he is alright." She said, obviously very concerned and worried. Zechs looked at his friend closely and hesitated before he spoke. "Noin, do you know the pilot?" Noin's heart skipped a beat at the question and she stammered. "What makes you think so?" "I heard you crying out a name when he self-detonated." "...." Noin struggled for a bit before replying. "I knew him when I was still living in the colony, but I haven't seen him after I left for earth." Zechs nodded. "How did you know him?" "I don't have to answer questions about personal affairs." She defended herself and the young pilot. "Noin..." He gazed at her and stopped at that. He could detect something between the boy and her, but he didn't want to invade her privacy. He didn't care about the identity of the pilot as much as his superiors anyway. However, it suddenly occurred to him how little he knew of her background, and that saddened him. As he looked at the young woman, he saw that her left cheek had a faint but distinct red mark on it. His heart cringed as he recalled what had taken place two hours before. "I am sorry, Noin." Zechs raised a hand and touched her left cheek tenderly. She was taken off guard by the unexpected gesture and stepped back, startled. "Y..you don't need to apologize, Zechs. It was nothing compared to what you must be feeling when you heard the words while fighting the Gundam, the sense of betrayal." He fell silent. She understood him very well, yet, she didn't seem to notice his anger. He did feel betrayed at the moment, but he was equally angry when he heard the slap. "Where are you planning to do the repairs on the Gundam?" Noin asked, switching the subject. "I'm not sure yet, but probably at a private workshop. The Romefeller wouldn't want the enemy mobile suit be restored." "Why don't you ship them to Lake Victoria?" She offered. "That would get you in serious trouble if they find out." He stared at her. Noin shrugged. "My men won't tell. If you can keep your technicians' mouths shut then I don't see why not." Zechs' icy blue eyes held Noin's dark blue eyes for some time, then he slowly nodded. "Thank you, Noin."
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Author's Note: ~Handsome Puppy~ |