Stars In the Night...
"Quatre-kun!" A golden-haired girl cried happily. She gave him a quick hug. "Welcome back! We’ve been waiting for you!" She cheerfully dragged him into the mansion. "Otou-sama and the others are all waiting for us in the den. You almost didn’t make it in time." She tossed her shoulder-length hair over her shoulder and threw Quatre a vaguely accusing glance. "That wouldn’t have made Midori-chan very happy. We need to get everyone ready quickly for the wedding rehearsal, you know."
"Aa, gomen nasai, Sumire-chan," Quatre said softly. He seemed somewhat distracted and the girl noticed that.
~Poor Quatre-kun. He must still be worried about the argument otou-sama and him are in.~ She continued to smile and chatter brightly at her younger brother. She felt saddened at Quatre’s shadowed expression. ~I may be a year older biologically, but he’s ages older in spirit.~ Sumire paused and took a breath before deciding that a direct approach was best. She threw open the doors. "Minna, Quatre-kun’s finally here!" She smiled brightly and pushed Quatre in.
"Quatre." A deep voice intoned.
"Otou-sama." Quatre steadily held his father’s gaze. An unspoken conversation was held within their intense look.
Sumire bit her lip nervously. ~Please. Don’t spoil this for Midori-chan, Quatre-kun, otou-sama. *Please*. Can’t we forget about the war for just a while?~
After an eternity of the charged silence, the head of the Winner household nodded and said. "Welcome home."
Quatre went over and gave his father a gentle hug. "Thank you." No more was needed to be said.
Sumire giggled happily as she twirled around in her dress. "Midori-’nee-chan no kakkoi!" She glomped her sister and continued chattering, "Aren’t you nervous? Aren’t you scared? The wedding’s in a few hours and you’re making Quatre-kun and me brownies!"
Midori smiled serenely, "It’s only a wedding, ‘mouto-chan. We’ve already practiced the ceremony and I know what to do. I’m ready."
Sumire blew some hair off her face and was about to reply when a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth. "Mmph!" She saw Midori in the same predicament and frantically tried to struggle free from the iron-hard grip of her assailant. The man holding Midori shot her an irritated glance and clubbed her over the head. Midori’s eyes widened and she tried to bite the man. How dare he harm one of the Winner family?
A muffled shriek came out and the man holding Sumire’s limp body grabbed her and jerked her close to his face. "Listen up," he hissed. "Nobody will get hurt if you just follow orders. I’ll slit your pretty little sister’s throat if you try anything. Got it?" he punctuated his demand with a hard yank to her elaborately coifed hair. Tears gathered in Midori’s eyes but she refused to let them free. She nodded. "Good. We needed bait for the little golden rabbit. We got it." A feral smile broke the man’s face, and she heard the sinister chuckling of the man holding her. What happened to the compound guards?
The man dropped a note over Sumire and grabbed a fistful of Midori’s hair, yanking her away with it. Even though his accomplice already had her in a hard lock. "Let’s go."
Midori blinked away futile teardrops. Quatre-kun would come for her. Her ototo-chan wouldn’t let her down.
She hoped.
The head of the Winner household scowled, "This is what results of being involved in the war!" He waved the note the abductors had left. He ignored it when Quatre snatched the note from his hand. "I knew I should never have allowed you to pilot that... that... thing!"
[Bring the Gundam to the appointed place. Otherwise the girl dies. Slowly, painfully, for every minute you delay, Gundam pilot 04. You have an hour.] Quatre crushed the note in his trembling hand. Even now the war threatened those he cared for. He vaguely heard his father’s recriminations. Hurt, fury, confusion, anguish, anger... They swirled around inside of him. Faint madness danced in his glaring jewel-blue eyes. A soft laugh escaped him. "Don’t worry, otou-sama. I will get Midori-chan back in time for her wedding."
He ignored his father’s command to wait for a rescue team. ~They’ll get Gundam alright. This is because of me. I will end this.~ He gunned the engines of his Gundam. ~My Sandrock... be true this day. Help me. My uchuu no kokoru tells me I will need it.~
His eyes glared into the distance. "And so will they."
Quatre’s fury fueled him, and honed his skills to a razor sharp ferocity. It had been ridiculously easy to break into the complex and find his sister. He gazed at her proud, stiff features. Even though a gun was pointed at her head, and a knife at her throat, she didn’t betray a single thing to her kidnappers. ~The blood of kings runs pure in her.~ He tried to design a plan to rescue Midori, but he couldn’t think of a way to get her quietly.
Suddenly, Duo’s advice drifted through his mind. ~Hit ‘em hard, hit ‘em fast, and don’t be afraid to hit ‘em fatally. That’s always the last option. Well, that and dying, and better them than you, ne?~
Quatre’s expression firmed. He was a Gundam pilot, after all. He could hit with the best of them.
He broke down the door with a kick, and shot the man holding the gun straight to the heart. He would normally feel remorseful, but the madness was still running through him, making him immune. The man with the knife attempted to throw it at him, and it would have worked. The aim was for the throat, the rush of the knife made a whistling sound through the air. Then the man’s smug expression turned into horror as Quatre snatched the blade in the air and threw it back at him, all within the space of an eyeblink. The knife was buried to the hilt in the man’s throat and he fell with a gurgle on Midori’s lap. Her shocked eyes begged silently for him to get the bleeding man off of her. He took a cautious look around first. Two people. There had only been two people to abduct Midori. Two people to ruin his relationship with his father for good. Two people...
He freed Midori, and tried for a smile. "Daijobu desu ka?"
Midori had a faint look of unease on her face, still discernible through the blood that had splashed on her, "Aa..."
"We could ride back in Sandrock," Quatre’s expression turned bitter, he had seen the look of thinly veiled disgust she had aimed at him, "but I think you’d prefer not to. I’ve arranged for us to meet a courier here, and he can take you back to the house. I’ll take Sandrock back myself."
Midori hesitated, she felt bad. She really did. But seeing what her little brother was capable of went against her deeply rooted pacifistic beliefs. "Perhaps that will be best. I..." She looked away. Men attempting to kill her didn’t make her blink, but a single look from her angelic-looking ototo make her back away warily. "I’ll see you. Thank you."
Quatre watched her get into the car, and stayed in his position until it was a mere speck in the distance. Then he looked around the building the men had taken his sister to. He took a perfunctory look around. His Gundam could fly back in more than enough time for the wedding. His training made him check around for information automatically. His hand idly brushed against a few papers and he scanned them reflectively. Then his eyes widened. He frantically read the rest of the files he found.
A distraction. A mere distraction. That was all the kidnapping had been. The real plan had been to have a MS drop onto the Winner compound and self-destruct. Quatre briefly sweatdropped. That was the big plan? OZ’s standards had gone done quite a bit. But it was effective. Simple, yet effective. He bolted for his Gundam. ~Please, Sandrock. Hurry. We have to catch the Mobile Suit.~
After what seemed like an eternity of furious flying, he finally caught sight of the tan MS. It was hauntingly familiar enough to Sandrock that Quatre understood how the idiotic, suicidal plan would’ve worked. The doors would’ve opened to welcome him, then the MS would have blown them all up.
Not while he was still alive. He slammed into the Mobile Suit’s side and opened the comm channel. "Please don’t do this. The Winners have only wanted peace, don’t bring the war to my family."
Crazed laughter rose and reverberated through the line. "Family? My family’s dead! Thanks to *you*, Gundam. Why shouldn’t I return the favour? *Shine*!!!"
The MS burst out into a flurry of hits and gun blasts. It was obvious that the pilot didn’t know how to fight, yet he still persisted.
Quatre evaded the maneuvers as much as he could. ~Did I really...~ Then a chain hooked and reeled his Gundam to the MS.
The maniacal laughter swelled once more. "Now we join our families!" The MS began to drag Quatre’s Gundam to the complex. Quatre tried to disentangle himself from the other suit, but nothing worked, and each second brought them closer to his family.
The ones who he was fighting to protect. What was a lone Gundam pilot to do?
So. That was the only choice. A simple decision to make, really. His mouth firmed.
Then he thumbed the switch.
Miles away on the Earth, a little girl saw the bright flash of light and made a wish.
Twinkle, twinkle little star...
Trowa and Wufei blankly accepted their mission orders. Infiltrate an OZ facility and sabotage, preferably destroy -- or better yet, *steal* the plans -- of the experimental canon that OZ was channeling a large amount of funds into. Due to the mere fact that the somewhat stingy Romefeller Foundation was actively participating in the construction of the Amprior Canon, the higher ups had decreed that this was something to take note of.
Normally, Trowa would’ve gone alone, or if he absolutely had to, he’d’ve taken Quatre. But now... Trowa cut off that line of thought. He didn’t need to dwell on the past. Not now. Not when he could be doing something to better the future, if not for him, then for everyone else’s. He had a brief discussion with Wufei on how to pull it off, then they both left. There was nothing else they could say. There was nothing else they could do.
It wasn’t even like they were even friends to begin with, and now that one of the few people Trowa cared for was gone, nothing anyone could say would ease the pain.
And Wufei knew more than anyone the pain that comes with losing someone.
So he didn’t even try to pretend to be able to help.
Only one person could.
And he was gone.
How could a simple theft go so wrong?
Getting in was fine. Getting the plans was fine. It was the getaway that completely screwed up. Somehow, someone had managed to catch sight of Shenlong’s distinctive Dragonarm under the tarpaulin it was hidden under. The alert was sounded, and Trowa had thrown the plans at Wufei and informed him to leave. He would distract the MS from Shenlong’s escape and meet him at the base later. Wufei hadn’t protested. He knew when to move, and when to argue. Since he didn’t have another alternative, he left. He knew that Trowa was capable of taking care of himself.
Trowa was a Gundam pilot, and had been a mercenary before. He was more than able to take care of himself.
The impromptu plan had worked. Heavyarms had burst out of hiding and blasted the base severely. In the confusion, one lone Gundam left unnoticed. Everything had been going... adequately. Then the ammo ran out.
And hand to hand fighting was not recommended when fighting hordes of Mobile Suits.
Wufei needed more time to get to the base. Time that Trowa knew there was only one way to provide.
Trowa suppressed a grunt of pain. It came done to this. Either fail the mission and set their struggle back some more, or die with the success of the mission. Alright. He had wanted to meet Quatre again anyways. Surely God wouldn’t be so cruel as to deny him the chance to see his angel one more time before he went... wherever he had to go. Might as well greet him with the news that they were one step closer to the end of the war.
He closed his eyes.
Then Heavyarms exploded.
Miles away on Earth, a woman snuggled into her husband’s arms as they enjoyed the low sparkle of starlight.
...How I wonder what you are...
"Perfect," the face on the screen murmured. He waved a hand dismissively. "You are to return to the Earth to complete the rest of Operation Meteor."
"Should I wait for Gundam 03?" Wufei asked coolly, dreading the answer inside. Trowa shouldn’t have taken this long to come back.
"Hm?" the man questioned absently, then, "Oh. Unfortunately, the pilot of 03 self-destructed to prevent capture of both himself and the critical data you have just delivered. Go ahead and meet up with 02. He will fill you in on the next mission the two of you will be sent to. That will be all." The screen blinked off.
Wufei calmly left the briefing room. He serenely walked down the hallway. He quietly entered the hangar where Nataku was stored. And he tranquilly destroyed a steel bench with his bare hands. It wasn’t his fault.
It shouldn’t have been in his way.
[Operation Meteor is on the move.] A glint was gained in a pilot’s eyes as he read the single line. He opened communications with the rest of his squadron. "Time to go hunting. Contact the Pathe squadron as well. They might like to join in on the fun."
"Hai!"
A grim smile settled over the man’s face. Time to finally get back at the destroyer of his children. Time to kill him.
Even if he was only a child himself.
Wufei meditated. His Nataku went on a steady pace to the Earth, and he felt the need to clear his mind before embarking on the next mission. He had to. He couldn’t dismiss the nonchalant acceptance of Trowa’s death. While they hadn’t precisely been friends, they had been comrades in the war.
They had been comrades in their loss. Yet, there had been something else. Wufei felt the faint knowledge of *what* it was just beyond his grasp, and if he only reached a little bit more, he would finally understand.
Just a little bit more....
Suddenly a multitude of Mobile Suits swarmed over him. And no matter how many he took out, yet more took their place.
Wufei stifled his snarl of frustration. Damn it! He had been so close.
So close to finally figuring out what to do, what to think, what to *feel*...
So close...
He had almost reached the safety of the Earth when he had been ambushed by the legion of Mobile Suits. So close. But not close enough.
Time crawled for him as he took down Mobile Suit after Mobile Suit.
"After we capture your Gundam, little dragon," a husky voice purred through the comm channel, "We will use the technology. What do you think we’ll do with it? And we will get the Gundam. There are too many of us for you to stop. Inevitably, you’ll fall. As did my children. Prepare to meet them in the afterlife."
There was not a chance in hell that he’d let them take Shenlong after hearing something like that. Not that he’d have let them take his Nataku anyways, but this renewed his convictions. There was a way to make sure that Nataku wouldn’t succumb to the endless OZ hordes.
Wufei’s eyes gained a glint of determination.
Justice would finally be met.
Then Shenlong went out in a glorious blaze of fire.
Miles away on the Earth, a young mother showed her son the aurora borealis. Strange, she hadn’t though that it’d be so red.
...Up above the sky so high...
Duo swore. Wasn’t it supposed to be easier at this point? He’d already gotten past the lax security of the base. He’d had to do the mission alone since Wufei had self-destructed.
That seemed to be growing trend lately. He was vaguely depressed about the whole issue. One by one, they were being whittled down. The fourth went first, third went second, the fifth went third. Who’d go next? The first? Or the second? Duo honestly didn’t know. Sometimes all he wanted was to close his eyes and go to sleep. Sometimes all he wanted was to forget, if only for a little while, that he was Death Incarnate. An Incarnation of Immortality, if you will. And so Death came calling on an unsuspecting OZ base.
He was almost home-free. Just his luck that today of all days Zechs Merquise had to drop in for a surprise inspection. So now he was fighting TallGeese.
He snarled as he parried a sword strike with his scythe. He’d agreed when Zechs had opened up the comm channel and proposed a one-on-one duel. Of course he’d agreed. Not only did it give him a better chance of leaving the base alive, it also provided a certain flair to the whole thing. And it needed it. He grinned mirthlessly. One does get tired of all the constant hiding and sneaking around, and one does what one can to alleviate the stress. If it means involving oneself in a flashy, dramatic battle with a skilled opponent, then so be it. Might as well go out with a bang if one can’t live one’s life with it.
A low voice made a languid comment. "Very good. It seems that Gundam 01 isn’t the only Gundam with a competent pilot." TallGeese aimed a high blow to Deathscythe’s head. Shinigami avoided it and whirled around to return the stroke. TallGeese deflected the scythe and accelerated towards Duo. He scored a glancing blow to the Gundam’s left arm.
Duo growled, "Damnit! You scratched Shinigami, you OZ bastard!!"
Zechs’ amused drawl cut in. "I’m not a bastard. My parents were married. Dead now, but married."
Duo was taken aback. What the..?! Since when did OZ soldiers start up conversations in the middle of an MS combat? Granted, so far he’d only faced the nameless, faceless drones, not the highly acclaimed Lightning Baron. But still... "What are you talking about?!"
Soft laughter drifted in, "I merely thought that we’d engage in a little friendly conversation. It seems that we don’t get to do that often, ne?"
Duo gave a half-mad bark of laughter. "No, but why not? Seems we won’t get a chance again anyways afterwards seeing as that one of us will be dead."
"Really, are you always so pessimistic? What makes you so certain that we will die?"
Shinigami deftly aimed a blazing thermal missile to TallGeese. Zechs suffered a blow to the elbow joint. "Who are you?"
"Whaa...?"
A repeated question. "Who are you? What do you fight for? *Who* do you fight for? Do you fight for anything at all?"
A faintly perplexed answer came. "I’m Duo. Duo Maxwell. You *know* what I’m fighting for. Oi, man, if you’re trying to distract me, then your goal is succeeding."
"Is that your real name?"
"Okay, this is way beyond weird now."
"Is it?"
"...no..."
"Then how you can fight completely?"
Duo snarled as TallGeese scored another hit on his Gundam. What was he trying to pull?! If he was trying to make Duo confused and irritated beyond belief, then he was definitely succeeding!
Zechs continued, "How can you keep on fighting without knowing who you really are?" His soft questioning seemed to be aimed more at himself than at Duo, but it still struck a point in Duo.
~How... how *can* I....~ Duo shook his head. Damn it. OZ was really getting better at this psychological warfare crap. "Names don’t matter. It’s what you make of yourself that does."
"But what have you made of yourself?" Again, the low response didn’t seem to be meant for Duo. But it still made him think. Throughout the violent MS battle, the question kept reverberating inside their heads.
~Who am I?~
TallGeese ruptured Shinigami’s fuel line.
~I am a soldier.~
Duo scowled and his Gundam grabbed hold of TallGeese.
~Who am I?~
TallGeese wrenched loose.
~I am Gundam 02.~
Shinigami persisted.
~Who am I?~
And caught the other suit’s arm.
~I am Shinigami.~
TallGeese rammed its sword dangerously close to the cockpit.
~Who am I?~
Duo barely blinked at the gaping hole right next to him.
~I am Duo Maxwell.~
Shinigami drew TallGeese in ever closer, ignoring the fact that TallGeese was destroying its Gundanium body with each blow of the blazing sword.
~Who am I?~
Zechs' mask broke, and he vaguely smiled. So. It would finally be over. He resigned himself to his fate.
~I am... I am...~
Duo’s eyes gained a tranquil look.
~I am.~
He caressed the button of an innocent seeming device.
~Ja, oyasumi nasai, Heero. Gomen ne.~
Then Deathscythe entered the realm of Eternal Night.
Miles away on Earth, a young woman sighed dreamily at the twinkling nightsky.
...Like a diamond in the sky...
Heero stared blankly at the computer screen. So, without even a last goodbye, he was gone. Duo was gone and now... Now what? Somehow it seemed so hard to grasp that fact. As if at any moment Duo’d walk in with a diamond bright smile and complain to him about how hard his day had been. As if at any moment Duo’s eyes would gain that familiar glint before he’d pounce on him. Heero’d always snarl a bit before giving in. He had to keep face after all. Now there was no need to save face because who’d be there to keep face in front of? Duo was gone.
His grip on the arms of the chair tightened. He barely heard the creak of protest from the metal. Duo was gone. There’d be no more bright smiles, serious questions, warm body. Duo was gone. That one phrase kept repeating itself in his mind. Duo was gone.
Callous as it may seem, the other pilots’ didn’t affect him much. Of course he’d experienced regret over their deaths, but it seemed that as long as he’d had Duo, everything would be alright. He’d never really had the chance to know the others, and he’d felt some regret that he never would. Even with all that time he had spent around Trowa, he never knew him. He just... didn’t feel the need to. He didn’t see the purpose in it. The mission overtook everything in him. It always did. The cold purpose of the mission filled him so much that nothing broke through it.
Except that somehow... Duo did. Relena tried, but she never made the same impact on him as Duo did. Heero viewed Relena with a sort of wistful sadness. This is what he might’ve become. If only the war and the mission didn’t claim him. ~The war...~
A steady beeping slowly alerted him. His once again flat eyes quickly scanned the data on his laptop. His current mission was to infiltrate OZ headquarters. With his Gundam. As the last surviving pilot, they were gambling him on an all-out strike against the center of OZ forces. He’d always known that he was just a pawn, but this brought the fact in more sharply home. But that didn’t matter.
Heero swiftly went to Wing. No time like the present, after all. Aware of the certainty that this was an all-or-nothing gamble, the scientists had provided Heero with every minuscule detail he needed. And then some. His mouth quirked briefly. Duo would have moaned about the amount of information and whined about having to memorize it. But he’d have done it. Complaining the whole while, but he’d have done it. Heero, being who he was, had committed the data to memory in a single glance. Heero’s brief smile faded. That had always irritated Duo. Now it never would.
During his flight, he’d formulated a plan. As much of one that he could come up with considering the situation anyways. Hide Wing, sneak in, note principal areas, get Wing, blow everyone to hell.
This made him vaguely uneasy. Really, why did he even need his Gundam? An assassin would do as well. He shook his head. Just follow the orders. That was all he could do.
Maybe Duo might’ve gotten him to do otherwise, but...
He was gone.
~Will you leave me too?~ Heero thought wistfully as he hid Wing in the forest nearby. Pathetic. All he had left was a hunk of metal to call his own.
But it was better than nothing.
Wasn’t it?
And even if it wasn’t, it was still the only thing left to him.
Heero’s flat eyes blazed with an intense, smoldering fire. The man responsible for Duo’s death was standing in front of him, immaculate and perfect.
Treize Krushrenada. The tawny-haired man nodded politely at something a member of the Romefeller Foundation said. A savage snarl escaped Heero’s throat, and he ignored the looks cast his way. Perfect. The whole of the Romefeller Foundation, as well as the OZ Foundation, was gathered in this location to celebrate the destruction of Gundam 02. Now with only one Gundam left, they felt that victory was certain.
Heero simmered as Krushrenada smoothly danced with Lady Une.
How dare he act as if nothing had happened?! How dare the man just waltz around without a care while his reason for living had died?!
~Demo... Duo is Death. And how could Death die?~ With that forlorn thought echoing in his mind, Heero left the room quickly. If he didn’t, he might’ve lunged for Krushrenada’s throat with the intent of ripping it out with his teeth. Then he would’ve been locked up, and how could he complete the mission then? ~...ninmu...~
Heero tore through the path in a ground-eating run. Time to finish things. Time to wrap things up.
Time to meet his beloved.
The OZ and Romefeller Foundations never even knew what hit them.
He simply flew Wing in, crashed in the ballroom, and uttered a single statement. The low, intense message boomed throughout the room, oddly amplified by the acoustics and the external speakers. "Krushrenada, this is the end. Omae o korosu."
Heero stretched out his hand yearningly towards Death. A vision floated in his mind. A smiling face with soft violet eyes whispered to him lovingly, "Just close your eyes. We’ll be together again. For always."
Then Wing detonated.
Miles away on the Earth, a baby cooed at the distant light on the horizon.
...Twinkle, twinkle little star...
Relena restlessly wandered the Sank Kingdom. She wasn’t at all concerned for her safety. Why would she be? Peace was here, the war was over.
Why wouldn’t it be?
All the players were dead.
And without anybody to move the pieces, then how could the giant game of chess continue?
It can’t.
So peace had occurred without a whimper of resistance.
Who would resist?
They were all dead.
Strange. It seemed too anticlimactic to be real.
Oh, it wasn’t that she didn’t approve of the peace. How could she not? After all, hadn’t she been struggling for the world to understand that pacifism was the way to True Peace? She sighed and absently ran her fingers through her hair. But it hadn’t been, had it. In the end, a few well-placed explosions had achieved more than her constant arguments for pacifism.
Of course, to achieve that peace, thousands of people died, maybe more, including Heero and the rest of the Gundam pilots. But... didn’t the end justify the means? Didn’t the safety of billions outweigh that of a minuscule fragment of the whole?
Relena found herself in a park. She sat down on the grass, unheeding of the dew that chilled her skin. Questions, questions, questions. They were all irrelevant, really. After all, what did it matter if she found the answers or not.
They were *all* dead.
Nothing she did would bring them back.
And with their death Absolute Pacifism had been embraced by the whole of humanity. Not out of any deep faith in it, but out of necessity. With the departure of the World Leaders, the people had needed a new form of government. They had wanted her. ~So, from the vice-minister’s spoiled daughter, to the Princess of the Sank Kingdom, to the Queen of the World. I’m doing very well for my age, ~ Relena thought whimsically. Then her melancholy returned. ~A Queen of the World, but a Queen alone. My dark prince has gone away, never to return again.~
Relena hugged her knees in close with a whimper. ~Alone, alone, alone. Always alone. Father, what should I do? My strength is gone, but I still have to support the weight of the world on my shoulders. Father... What should I do?~
Tears gathered in her eyes as she sought answers to her problems. The dark sky reflected her mood. What *can* she do, really?
Nothing.
She couldn’t just leave her people drifting, after all. So now she had to finally let go of things and grow up, even if she still felt like a child. ~But that’s what I am,~ a voice inside cried out piteously. But Relena resolutely ignored the voice and made her decision. ~I have to try. I can’t let Heero’s sacrifice be in vain. I can’t let any of their deaths be.~
Relena stood up abruptly. Her mourning wasn’t over, and perhaps it never would. But right now she had a duty to fulfill.
Her sad eyes gazed upwards. "Too bright," she murmured as she wiped tears away. She could see the quick wink of a star through her blurring eyes. "The stars are really so very bright tonight."
...How I wonder what you are.
~OWARI~
Duo: {shakes his head}I can't believe you killed me.