This is it, folks. The end of everything. I hope you've enjoyed!
WARNINGS!!!!! This story takes place after the deaths of all original
characters from the series!!!!
"Heirs To the Legacy 2"--Part Fifteen
A Matter of Heart Series by Andrea Readwolf
<andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com>
Archived at Gundam Wing Addiction
Pairings: Heero + Duo + Wufei, Quatre + Trowa, 1+2+3+4+5+6
Trinity + Adrian = Yuy, Maxwell
Mara Jade + Tristan = Meiran, Dakota, Jasmine, Galen, Bryce, Adrienne,
Hisoka, Michael
Kit + Triton = Gabriel
Nikki + Dylan = Angelina (Angel), Skye, Odin
Calista + Julian = Leah, Lucius (Luke), Cassandra
~Sphere 6 o'clock News Thursday February 15 AC 278 ~
::Representatives of Winner Enterprises announced today that this morning at 9:13, former WEI CEO Quatre Raberba Winner passed away of natural causes at his estate home in Africa. Quatre Winner, most well-remembered for his dedication to rebuilding and refurbishing the colonies as well as promoting the Outer Reach program, which allowed the colonization of Mars and the two Deep Space Stations, is survived by his three children, twelve grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchildren. He was 98 years old.::
~Law Offices of WEI, Saturday February 17 AC 278~
"As you know," the lawyer addressed the gathered adults, "the senior Mr. Winner was a very intelligent man."
"Get on with it," a grey-faced Calista Winner snapped. At her side, her husband squeezed her hand, but Julian was also stone-faced.
"Yes, well," the lawyer continued slightly flustered, "Mr. Winner's estate was completely dissolved several months ago. He has lived these last three months practically poor."
The eight adults blinked at him and he rushed forward with the charts his former client had asked him to prepare for just this occasion.
"This was Mr. Winner's estate last year." The chart listed over a hundred residences along with shares of practically every known company, bonds, buildings, businesses... and one organization that Calista was very familiar with. Her rival company: Star Lancer.
"What the he--" she started with annoyance at realizing her father had established a new organization without telling anybody, least of all her. The audacity of that man!
"Last August," the lawyer continued, "Mr. Winner approached me with his decision to sell everything."
There were startled gasps and wide eyed, disbelieving looks.
"Yes, I know, I was quite surprised myself, but he assured me, he was quite satisfied and insisted I draw up the papers for the transfers accordingly."
The man pulled out another chart--this one color coded and transparent, which laid over the first.
"As you can see here," he intoned, "Mr. Winner divided his estate into what he deemed fair." He pulled many fat envelopes from his briefcase. "Here are the individual assessments of your new estates, including the deeds to several residences, funds, and shares. Here are the letters, which are to be distributed to Mr. Winner's children to give to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
Trinity, Triton, Tristan, Mara Jade, Dylan, Nicole, Julian, and Calista looked at the stack of envelopes.
"In addition, Mr. Winner left only this letter," he said, handing another envelope to Calista, "and charged I am not to stick around while you read it." He cleared his throat. "Please accept my condolences for your loss... Your father was... a truly wonderful man."
And then the lawyer cleared out of there, leaving his color-coded charts behind.
Calista's hands shook, but finally, after the door was shut tight behind her father's lawyer, she moved to open the letter.
"'You are all to go to the Sands before the year is ended,'" she read in a shaky voice. "'Together. There you will meet a young man called Amasa. He will take you to my final instructions.'"
"'Amasa,'" she repeated. "'Bearing a burden.'"
"It seems," Tristan sighed wearily, unable to call forth a smile, "we are to have an adventure."
"Indeed," his brother replied, absently fondling his wedding band and wishing his wife, Katarynna, were still here.
"Good Afternoon, Everybody!" the pretty dark-haired woman sang, smiling at the audience and camera. "I'm happy to introduce to you today a very talented writer whose new book is having a hard time staying on the shelf for very long. This person is, of course, JT Mazlo and his book, _Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, a story of the Eve Wars_, is number one on the New York Bestseller's List. JT, welcome to the show, and thank you for coming."
"Thank you," the middle-aged man replied, smiling and shaking hands with the talk show host before waving out to the screaming crowd.
"Now, I must confess, I'm a big fan of your work," the talk show host began, "And I picked up your new book right away. I'm sure my audience will agree with me, but I found a lot of the information in this book completely outstanding."
Julian nodded and smiled but didn't comment.
"I heard you rpublishers wanted you to list this book under Fiction, but you refused and in fact went to a different publisher to have _Gundam Wing_ published under Nonfiction."
"That is correct," he smiled.
"But with such extraordinary situations described in your book, certainly, some of this has to be exaggerated?"
"Well, that's the amazing thing about the Gundam's story and the story of its pilots: they were so extraordinary already, that I really didn't have any room to embellish, and in fact, I had to cut out several segments of their story because left alone, it would have been entirely too long. _Gundam Wing_ is a true biography of the five original gundam pilots."
"Tell us, how did you decide on the name of your book?"
"Well, that was a tough decision. When I wrote _Gundam Wing_ I had the benefit of working directly with the pilots, and really, this could be considered an autobiography considering how closely I worked with them. All I did was edit some here and there, though, if they were here, I'm sure they would disagree. But when the story was finished, I asked them what they thought I should title it. I, of course, had several titles in mind already, but it was Mr. Peacecraft, who, if you've read my book, I'm sure you know was also Zechs Merquise, who suggested the title _Gundam Wing_.
"The other pilots agreed, with the exception of Heero Yuy, who was the pilot of the Wing Gundam. He insisted the story was about all the gundam pilots and if the book was titled after his gundam it would make it seem like he was the only important pilot." Julian smiled. "You wouldn't think it, considering all he has been forced to do and has done, but Mr. Yuy was actually a very shy person."
"Truly amazing," the host agreed. "JT, your story contains many shocking revelations, one of the more prominent ones concerning Quatre Winner, former CEO of Winner Enterprises Inc., who recently died early this year, as the pilot of Gundam Sandrock."
"That's correct."
"It's quite shocking to imagine this man who has promoted peace was an activist in the Eve Wars."
"Is it?" Julian seemed amused. "I don't think so at all. Anyone who has ever had an opportunity to meet with Quatre Winner, let alone become friends with him, could tell you that he was a fiercely protective man. He often told me that although he hated war and fighting he chose to fight so others wouldn't have to, so his father and sisters and their families and the families of all the colonists could go to bed at night without fear.
"It was a common theme with all the original pilots: they fought so others wouldn't have to. To protect those who were unable to fight for themselves. I don't know where they received that idea from, but I do know they believed in it."
It took them until November, almost the end of their allotted year, to arrange a time convenient for all to meet at the Sands. Trinity's arrival was the most difficult to schedule as, since Adrian's death, she had been the sole ruler of the Sank Kingdom. Still, they all made it; all who were left. The eight of them: Trinity, Triton, Tristan, Mara Jade, Dylan, Calista, Julian, and Nicole.
Amasa was waiting for them. "The heirs to the legacy have finally chosen to come," the middle aged man grinned knowingly at them. "Come then, there is not much time to waste," he said, leading them off through the small oasis city of the White Sands, ancestral home of the Raberbas.
Finally he led them into a home that seemed to be made out of mud. He threw back a rug on the floor and revealed a trap door which he then ushered them through, urging them to "hurry, hurry, we must move quickly." The trap door revealed a staircase that seemed to descend into the very depths of hell it went down for so long, and then the steps leveled off and they were traveling through an uprise, slight but still leading up.
"I'm not in shape for this," the seventy-four year-old monarch huffed, pushing sweaty gray hairs away from her aged face.
"Not much farther," Amasa assured her, "but we must hurry."
They hurried, straight into a small corridor and paused, for Amasa had stopped and looked at them all expectantly. "Everyone, place your palm against the wall, like so," he instructed them, lifting Triton's hand and pressing the palm against the wall. For several seconds it seemed like nothing would happen…
And then a golden outline of a hand lit up around his hand and an orange horizontal bar of light ran up and down over his palm. The hand print flashed blue and above his fingertips appeared the words:
::TRITON RABERBA WINNER ACKNOWLEDGED::
"Everyone," Amasa urged. "Hurry, everyone."
Palm after palm, they stepped forward and were acknowledged. Finally, Amasa stepped back. "Where you go, I can not follow. This is where we part. Good luck to you," he said before disappearing back up the way they'd came.
Calista huffed with exasperation. "What the hell's going on here?" she growled.
Suddenly, a seamless door slid open right next to her--Calista jumped back against her brother--and there before them stood a middle-aged handsome man with shaggy golden blond hair and bright shining blue eyes, smiling at them. An achingly familiar man.
"Perhaps I can explain," a middle-aged version of Quatre Raberba Winner said.
"Good Gods," Julian cried softly, his soft blue eyes growing wide.
Quatre smiled kindly at them. "I am both saddened and overjoyed to meet you here," he said, half turning to invite them to walk down the corridor that he had blocked moments before. "I am overjoyed because I know I am with your fathers now, finally. I am saddened because I knew this day would come, and I would have liked to have saved you from it--you who have inherited our terrible legacy.
"I lied to my loved ones for 90 long years--" he turned back towards them, his blue eyes flashing with an inner light it seemed, "and now I must ask for you to endure a heavy burden. I knew the day would come when the gundams would be needed again."
There was a humming of machinery powering up and suddenly the corridor they were in was flooded with brilliant light pouring in through the wall--which turned out to be not a wall at all, but an observation window. There was the sharp outcry of surprise along with the wincing that accompanied the sudden illumination---followed shortly by awe in breaths, gasps, and quiet oaths as eyes adjusted enough to focus on the view revealed.
"That is what I must ask you to endure, what I must force it upon you, my children and my grandchildren, the heavy burden, the legacy of guardianship of our suits.
"I took it upon myself," Quatre was saying, "to restore the gundams to their original glory, and although I know it hurt my loves and they missed their suits dearly, I allowed them to believe their gundams were dead--destroyed and lost to them forever. It was not easy for me to keep such a secret from my family--anymore than it is easy to leave such burden to my children, to leave you such a legacy. But I did it.
"This is the legacy we leave you."
"But... why?" Calista asked, her throat choking with frightened tears. She fell against her husband, Julian catching her readily. "Oh, gods, father, what have you done to us?"
AN: This segment is an after piece that will briefly explain the deaths of the gundam pilots. It is not necessary to read this and, if you are queasy about any sort of talk of death, it is recommended that you do not ready this bit. ~AR
In AC 248-249, a series of terrorism acts began. In an effort to help stop the these acts, the gundam boys came out of reserve, as it were. In November or 249, Preventers Head Quaters in the capitol city of Eart was attacked. Over three hundred people were in the building, including Sally Po, Lady Une, and Heero Yuy. Heero did not die in the building, but was later taken off life support--an act which I believe hurts more than someone dying...
A year and a half later, Zechs died of a heart attack. His sister, Relena, was killed the same year by assassination.
Odin Maxwell, Dylan and Nikki's youngest child, is named after his father's mentor. Odin and Callie's daughter Cassandra are the only two grandchildren Heero and Zechs didn't get a chance to meet...
Trowa, in 270, subcomed to an old age that no amount of serum could help him from. Three years later, in 273, Wufei died of lung failure. Another three years saw Duo's death from old age. Another two years brought Quatre to his final breath.
The End
If you have any questions concerning any part of this story, please ask me at andrea_readwolf @ hotmail.com
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com