03-Sep-2000
Okay, finally I've finished Until Forever. Note that there _will_ be a sequel of it, or I wouldn't have named the whole series AC 215 Arc.
So for now, enjoy! ^_^
The shadow advanced forward and Solo's breath caught. The moonlight revealed the girl he had encountered this afternoon.
The pilot of Wing Zero.
She had looked better. The bruises on her skin were barely visible. She had changed from her pilot suit into a pair of black pants and a dark violet sleeveless turtleneck. But her eyes were still the same.
Dead.
He was about to ask the girl who she was when she raised her hand. There was a gun in it, aiming right at the boy.
Solo was startled, but before he could have any reaction, the girl had fired the gun.
The boy yelped as a small dart stabbed his shoulder. Immediately his world started to spin. //Tranquillizer...// He desperately reached to the table next to his bed as the drug rapidly invaded his consciousness. //Must alert... the others... //
The girl watched coldly as Solo pulled out a handgun from the drawer. She didn't do anything as the boy raised his trembling hand, desperately trying to take aim at her, which was almost impossible as his vision swam in and out.
With his last burst of energy, he pulled the trigger.
The bullet whizzed by, barely grazed the girl's arm and hit the wall behind her.
The last thing in Solo's mind as his body finally gave up to the drug was the image of his father.
//Dad... help... //
Duo's head snapped up as he heard the sound of the gunshot. He realized with a start that it came from the room next to Heero's. Solo's room?
"Solo!!"
He turned on his heels and dashed out of the room, followed by the Japanese who had jumped out of his bed and grabbed a gun the moment the gunshot was heard. Although he was surprised by the braided man's presence in his room, he quickly dismissed the thought, saving it for later.
Duo ran to his son's room and barged in. The sight before him stopped him in his tracks.
It was the girl who attacked his son. He hadn't been able to see her face before, given the distance separating them at their last meeting, but now....
Somehow, everything about the girl screamed familiarity. The face, the moss green hair, the Prussian blue eyes, the slender figure. He glanced behind him as his Japanese friend barged into the room and he knew.
Everything about her resembled Heero. Alike, but not exactly the same. But that wasn't all. There was something else. Something else about the girl that was terribly familiar.
What ever it was, he soon forgot about it when he saw his son.
Solo wasn't moving. In Duo's panicked state, he almost convinced himself that the girl had killed his son, but instead, his rational side let him notice that the boy was merely unconscious as he spotted the dart on his shoulder. However, the relief was short-lived as the girl slung the boy over her shoulder.
"Freeze!!" Duo yelled as he pointed his gun at her. "Don't move or I'll have to shoot you again."
The girl didn't seem to hear him. She didn't even glance at him. She just turned her back to him and proceeded to jump out the window with her burden on her shoulder.
Duo gritted his teeth and took aim. But he never managed to pull the trigger.
"No!!" Heero pounced at him, knocking his gun to the floor.
"Baka! Nani o?!?!" Duo decided to deal with it later and decided to attack the girl. However, Heero grabbed him from behind, restraining him, and of course, giving the long-haired girl a chance to escape.
The invader ran, bringing Solo with her. She knocked down the Maganacs who tried to block her way in efficient attacks, and quite shortly, Duo could only watch as they disappeared in the darkness. It made him lose any control he had over himself.
Duo turned around and slapped Heero across the face.
The force of the blow made the Japanese ex-pilot fall. He sat up, his hand on his sore cheek.
"Have you any idea what you've just done?" Duo hissed. He tried to regain his self-control, but the rage and anger were still clear in his voice.
There was a flash of pain in the fallen man's eyes, but he kept silent. And Duo didn't say anything further.
He was too angry to speak.
AC 215, December 25th.
It was a nice Christmas. However, in the Winner mansion, the situation was unnerving. In the dining room, the servants had served the breakfast, but being too distracted, neither the host nor the guests noticed, let alone ate.
"I can't believe it...." Vier sighed in exasperation as he rested his forehead against his palms. "First she blew up a colony, then attacked this house, then almost killed Solo, and now she kidnapped him from us?" He lifted his face and glared at Heero. "And _you_ just let her run?"
The Japanese glared back at the Arabian boy with his old Heero Yuy Death Glare™.
Flustered by the counter-attack, the boy barked. "What? I was right, wasn't I? Are you really not working for the mad scientist?"
"Vier," Xiaolong interrupted, "Don't be so rude, please. It's not like it was his fault."
"What? Did I say anything wrong? He did let the girl go with Solo."
"Vier-"
"Duo-san was trying to stop her, but noooooo, he just _had_ to obstruct-."
"ENOUGH!!" Duo had had enough of it. He stood up abruptly and slammed his hands on the table.
Everyone went silent.
Duo inhaled through his clenched teeth and hissed. "There's no point in blaming anyone. Now, can we just _please_ try to find a way to rescue my son and get him back?"
After a while, Trowa, who had been silent the whole time, finally said, "I have a plan."
The others turned their full attention toward him.
"Basically," the Latin ex-pilot said, "Xiaolong, Vier, and me will provide a distraction while Duo and Heero infiltrate the colony. Xiaolong will take Cyclone and Vier will take Stardust. Duo and Heero....". He continued explaining. When he finished detailing the plan he had in mind, he asked, "Is there anything else?"
The others were either silent or shook their heads.
"Fine. Then we're leaving in 3 hours."
Finally, after planning the rescue mission, they decided to call it off and retreat to their respective rooms to prepare.
"Today... " Heero murmured as he and Duo walked down the corridor.
That caught the other man's attention. "Huh?"
"Today is supposed to be Eva's 14th birthday."
The mention of the name that had disturbed Duo's thoughts since last night silenced him. After a moment, he finally asked, "Eva?"
"The girl you almost shot last night."
"...She's your daughter, isn't she?" Duo asked.
Heero was silent for a moment before nodding his affirmation. As if able to read all the questions that screamed for answers in the other's brain, he continued. "Eva was abducted one year ago. I was on my way to pick her up at school. It was her first day in junior high school and I had promised her that we were going to eat out after school."
The American watched as the other man's eyes went distant.
"She was waving her hand at me from the gate of her school. But suddenly a car came out of nowhere and stopped next to her. Some guys came out of it and grabbed her, forcing her to enter the car."
His jaw clenched, "I tried to stop them... but one of them managed to shoot me down." Heero stopped in his tracks, his hand unconsciously rubbing his abdomen. "The next thing I know I was hospitalized for my injury. The police have been trying to find her for months, but nobody knew where she was. Nobody but me."
Duo looked at him questioningly.
Heero grimaced, "I thought Dr. I had given up on seeing her experiments the day I blew up her laboratory. I should have known better. There's no way she will give up, especially after one of her experiments succeeded."
"... Experiments?"
"Experiments."
Duo frowned. "What experiments?"
Heero sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Bio technology experiment. Cloning. Whatever you want to call it." Upon the shocked expression on the other's face, he continued.
"Eva was the only surviving product of her experiments. The scientist's target was to create a perfect soldier, or at least that was what I read in the experiment objective though nobody actually know what her real goal was."
Duo moved his mouth, trying to say something, anything. After several failed attempts, he finally managed to whisper. "Why? Hasn't she had enough of the war? Doesn't she know better than to start another? Perfect Soldier... does she really not know what it is all about?"
The Japanese looked back wistfully at him. "Do we even know why people always start wars in the first place?"
"Why can't people have enough of it? War is... is... "
"I know, Duo."
The pain was clear in his voice, in both their voices. Two souls, robbed of their childhood, stripped off their emotion, too exhausted to feel, too hurt to live.
"All I ever knew was to survive, to fight, to steal, to kill." Duo hugged himself as he whispered those words. "I don't want Solo to be like that. I don't want him to feel what I felt, to..."
Heero's finger on his lips silenced him.
"Mou ii," he said. "I understand. That's why we will go there and save the children. Kanarazu."
Collecting himself, Duo inhaled deeply and released his breath in a puff. "Yes..." he said, "We will..."
Heero nodded and proceeded to walk again.
Nobody was talking as they walked down the corridor. Finally they reached Heero's room. As he opened his door, behind him, Duo broke the silence. "Heero..."
"What?" he replied.
"Mind if I ask you something?"
"...What?"
"I noticed that she's not a clone of you."
"She was... made... by combining my genes and someone else's."
Duo went silent for a while, contemplating, and asked again. "Who is that other person, Heero?"
He saw the other's back stiffened and the grip on the doorknob tightened. It was all he needed to know the answer. "It was me, wasn't it, Heero? That's why you couldn't let me shoot her last night, isn't it?"
There was another silence before Heero finally said, "Aa."
Duo touched the other man's shoulder and gently turned him around. Many unspoken words were exchanged as their eyes met and locked. Duo brought his hand up and brushed the unruly bangs out of those intense blue eyes. "I still love you, you know," he said.
"...I know... " Heero closed his eyes and leaned into the warm hand that softly cupped on his cheek.
"I know..."
"How is it?"
Quatre looked up to his wife and sighed. "They're going to rescue the boy in a few hours."
Relena bit her lower lips. "Is that so...."
The man took his wife by the wrist and guided her to sit on his lap. "You know...," he said, "I have a bad feeling about this."
The woman looked at her husband questioningly.
"I have a feeling... that this is going to be bitter. Even more bitter than what we faced a long time ago..."
"Quatre..." There was a silence before Relena finally said: "But we can face it. I know we can. We will. Because we have to. Don't we? It's not like we have any choice."
"Aa..." The blond man nodded. "I just wish...," he continued, "that we won't lose anyone..."
White noise.
He heard white noise from a distance.
Or was it white noise?
He wasn't very sure of that....
The noise gradually disappeared and was replaced by the humming sound of machinery. It was a very familiar sound for the boy. //Engine room... Not just an ordinary engine room. I'm in a colony's engine room...//
Solo tried to open his eyes, but a wave of dizziness attacked him. He forced himself to open his eyes and was rewarded with the sight of a gun pointed at his face. He cringed. //Damn... Must be one of those days...//
He moved his attention from the gun to the glove-covered hand that was holding it and higher until he met the same intense but dead blue eyes that had been in his thoughts for a while.
And he remembered what happened. Flustered, he said the only thing he could think of in that kind of situation.
"Oh, shit... "
Trowa looked back from his seat as Xiaolong entered the cabin. "Cyclone?"
The boy replied. "Check."
Vier followed a moment later. Trowa asked again, "Stardust?"
"Check," the boy answered as he sat on his seat and pulled on his seatbelt.
Trowa pushed the communication link button. "01, 02?"
"Ready," Duo answered over the com from another shuttle. He could also hear Heero's confirmation grunt.
Trowa nodded, "Then let's go."
Solo stared as the girl put her gun into the holster at the small of her back and walked to the edge of the room. She reached for the communication link and punched a series of numbers. When the other side replied, the girl simply said, "He's awake." Her voice was monotone. It didn't have any trace of emotion in it.
A sound of an old woman's voice answered through the link. "We'll be there in a few minutes."
"Ryoukai," the girl answered. With that, she turned off the comlink and turned back. Solo watched as she sat against the wall in front of him.
All this time, her eyes never left him.
Solo stared back at her and their eyes met. Neither flinched nor turned their gazes. The boy took this opportunity to study the mysterious girl before him under the dim lighting of the room.
She seemed to be around the same age as him. Well, maybe a bit younger, but he couldn't tell. Then he noticed something.
//...This girl... she looks very familiar... //
He squinted his eyes and wriggled his nose, trying to see through the dark, and also to fish a reaction from her. This should have looked funny based on his experience. The girl should have seen it since the only light in the room was focused on him so that she could see him but not vice versa. She should have cracked a tiny smile or at least show a little sign of emotion or something, anything.
She didn't even blink.
The boy sweatdropped. Maybe he just didn't see it because of the lighning? "Anou... "
No answer.
"...Hello?"
Still no answer.
"Miss?"
Even the engines looked more alive compared to her.
"If by any chance the roof cracked and fell down on you and me, will you still say nothing and act like a goddamn mannequin like you do now?"
The silence between them started to sound _very_ loud.
Solo sighed loudly and leaned back against the wall. "This is nooooooooo fun at all. First you nearly blew up the mansion, then you blew up Uncle Wufei, then you nearly broke my neck, and now you kidnapped me! In my PJs, nevertheless!! At least you could have spared my dignity and kidnapped me in my jeans or something other than this polkadot PJs."
The Ice Girl From Hell, as he decided to nickname her since he didn't know her real name, still said nothing.
//Damn. I must sound pretty desperate here.//
Solo sighed again, louder this time. "God! What have I done to deserve this?"
"Nothing, my dear child."
The boy raised an eyebrow at the old woman in a wheel chair and the man accompanying her who had just entered the room. "Hello, child," the woman greeted him.
The boy grimaced. "You know," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "There are two things that I hate the most concerning old women. First, they call me child. Geez, my name is Solo, Solo Maxwell. What's so difficult about my name that you have to call me otherwise? Two, they order somebody to kidnap me in my PJs. Talk about humiliation!"
The woman giggled, must to his dismay, while the man said with amusement, "Why do you have to fuss over it so much? It's not as if you're in a condition to choose."
"Because it's embarrassing! You were a boy once, ya should know this." Solo muttered under his breath, "At least you weren't raised as one."
The woman laughed while the man just shook his head in amazement. To Solo's surprise, even in that kind of situation, the long-haired girl still didn't show any sign of emotion or reaction. And he had thought that he had been funny. //Must have lost my touch.// He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"So," he asked, "if I hadn't done anything wrong, why am I here? Where is this anyway?"
"Oh. This is a little colony in L1. It's a special colony for scientists like us who like the freedom of experimenting and not have to worry about somebody else's bickering about it. I believe you've heard of L1-X00101?"
The boy rolled his eyes, straining himself not to make any comment about the colony known as the 'Mad Scientist Colony'.
"I should introduce myself," the woman said. "My name is Ingrid, but my 'fellow' scientists call me I. I am a scientist. I used to work for OZ before my 'friends' decided to leave. I worked there another couple of years before I decided to quit and bring my family out."
Seeing that the boy was unfazed by her introduction, she continued. "As to why you are here... it's only because you happen to be the son of Duo Maxwell, the one who killed my husband in one of his attack years ago."
Solo groaned and lifted a hand. "Wait a second. Let me guess. It's like in those movies, isn't it? A killed B, B's whomever used A's whomever to get revenge, then A's whomever's whomever used B's whomever's whomever to get another revenge and so on. Right?"
Dr. I smiled and nodded. "You may say so."
"Weird," the boy commented. "What's the point of revenge anyway? It's not like the dead will rise from their grave."
There was a flash of fire in the old woman's eyes before she smirked. "And who are you to say that, my child? As if you know the pain of war, the pain of losing a beloved in the middle of chaos, the pain of losing your child, your friends, everone you know, the-"
"FOR YOUR INFORMATION, old hag," the boy shot back, glaring at her. "...You're the one who made me feel it for the first time. You blew up my colony and killed everyone I care about but my dad, remember?"
There was silence. Then, the scientist smirked. "Yes, I did. And you are next. Then another. And another. And another until everyone those Gundam pilots care about die."
A few kilometers before X00101. Suddenly a squadron of Serpents appeared out of nowhere.
As Duo noticed their presence from the radar of the shuttle, he cursed. "Oh, shiiiiit! Serpents! As if we didn't have enough without them."
"We'd better split up here," Heero told Trowa through the comlink.
"Xiaolong and Vier are already in their Mobile Suits. Ready to launch them out."
A few moments later, the two MSs were out. They quickly threw themselves against the Serpents and the battle was on.
Vier once again proved himself to be very competent in battle. Where he managed to learn how to fight like that was beyond everyone. However, Xiaolong was not bad compared to the other boy. His experience in the Preventers really helped him in the fight.
That, and the fact that the Serpents were engaged in mobile doll system.
"Damn! So many mobile dolls! Where did she get the money for all of them?" Duo cursed as they maneuvered to avoid a blast.
"Some sick people with money," Heero answered. "They are interested to see if she able to indeed create a Perfect Soldier, so they put their money to fund the project."
"They're a bunch of psychos!!"
"They are."
The assistant looked up from his computer. "They're coming."
Dr. I smirked. "Finally." She turned to the boy and said. "Your old man is here to save you. Isn't that sweet? I knew he and his friends were smart enough to find out where we are. I did leave a lot of clues to our whereabouts."
The boy blew her a raspberry.
"We'd better go to the lab. We have better access to the situation there," the man suggested.
"Sure, Veejay." The woman answered and let him take control of her wheel chair.
"Eva," he called to the girl who had been like a statue the whole time. At the sound of her name, she turned her head to him.
//Just like a programmed robot,// Solo said to himself.
"Can you bring him with us?" Veejay ordered. "Of course, hold him so that he can't escape."
"Ryoukai," the girl nodded and stood up. She strode toward Solo and grasped his wrists.
"Hey, watch it! You're hurting me!" The boy tried to free himself from her iron grip in vain. The girl was so strong for her size, even stronger than him. And to think that he was supposed to be very strong compared to boys his age. //Somebody did a nasty job when training her. Maybe some biological enhancement?// he thought as he was half dragged out of the room. However, his protesting was silenced when he looked back at the girl who was pinning his arm as they walked down the corridor. The lighning in the hall was far better than the one in the room, and for the first time, Solo finally managed to see the girl's face clearly.
What he saw made him forget to breathe.
The girl was beautiful, that fact was mesmerizing enough, considering he was a normal teenage boy with hormones. What had made him so surprised was the girl's face. It reminded him of Heero Yuy. Yeah, the silent guy who had come to the mansion the day before, the guy his dad lo-
Oops, he'd better not go there. Not yet. It really was not the time for that.
As the boy was busy contemplating, Veejay suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Dr. I frowned as the wheel chair suddenly stopped. "Why are we stopping here?"
"...I'd like to thank you for giving me the chance to get a revenge," the assistant replied.
"It's okay," the doctor said, shrugging. "Those pilots and their friends are just a pain in the ass. They might have helped creating the peace, but too many people had died already by that time. And most of those deaths were because of them, whether they like it or not. It's only fair if we do the same to them and take everything they have."
"Ah, that's why we blew up that colony, right? The suspicion between the colonists and Earth will rise again and the peace will end. That's a blow, especially for Peacecraft and Winner. The destruction of the colony itself is a blow for Maxwell, though we had thought to eliminate him and his family as well as the colony."
"That would have been too quick. That's why we let him go so he could suffer and watch the others suffer."
"I believe you are really into getting your revenge on Maxwell."
"Of course. And Yuy as well, I must say. Why else would I create a child of _theirs_?" She said, indicating Eva.
Upon hearing their conversation, Solo was snapped out of his reverie and his eyes widened. He turned his head to look back again at the girl. //This girl? A child of my dad and Heero?! Oh, my God... no wonder she felt so familiar. She's my half sister!//
Oblivious to the boy's shock, Veejay continued. "The best revenge?"
"The best revenge." The scientist smirked "Nothing will hurt more than being killed by their own child."
"I must agree with you on that."
The sound of gunshot echoed through the corridor.
Dr. I stared at the wound on her chest and looked up at the man in disbelief. "...Why?" she asked.
The man's voice was cold and detached. "For choosing your revenge over your own daughter."
Trowa shot a Serpent down. Although he was just using a Leo, his shooting abilities were still above normal. he was still superior to the AI controlling the mobile dolls.
He shot some more, clearing the area. "You'd better hurry up, Duo." He said over the link.
"Yosh!!!" With that, Duo hit the booster button, sending them forward in a split second through the path the unibanged man had cleared for them.
The shuttle entered the pod and landed with a crash. Once it stopped, it only took seconds for the two men inside to jump out of the shuttle and run like hell.
The shuttle blew up.
Solo stared at the events before him in disbelief. "What the Hell??!!" he nearly shrieked. He looked back and forth between the now-dead doctor and her traitorous assistant. "Why did you kill her?!"
"For all the classic reasons." Veejay said coolly. "Revenge."
"Excuse me? But I thought that your rage was toward the Gundam ex-pilots."
"And her too," the man said. "I'm taking revenge for her daughter whom she abandoned because of her rage toward the killer of her husband."
His eyes became distant. "Do you know how Annie suffered because of it? She had already lost her mother because of the Tallgeese project. Dr. I was too obsessed with it. And then she lost her father in an attack, by _your_ father's Gundam. And then her mother was too obsessed on taking revenge to take care of Annie like she was supposed to."
Now his eyes became red with anger. Solo flinched as those eyes glared at him with full force. "Did you know that she killed herself two years ago? I bet you didn't know. Nobody knew. Not even her mother knew because she was too busy plotting her revenge." He smirked. "That's why I became her assistant. It was the best way to get closer and closer to her, to finally...," the smirk was getting wider, "I managed to kill her with my own hand. No, Annie managed to kill her using my hand."
Solo had never felt so freaked out in his whole life.
The iron door exploded and the duo came in. They ran through the corridor, expecting to find some guards to block their way. They didn't. All they confronted by were either machine guns emerging suddenly from the wall or weird looking robots with shotguns.
"I can't believe it!" Duo whined. "The doctor really relies on machinery to guard her! Does she expect humans to be weaker than machines? This is even worse than mobile dolls! I feel like I am in a nightmare!"
"Over there!" Heero exclaimed. "The control room is right after that corner!"
"Yosh!!" They increased their speed and rushed to that corner, not noticing that the machinery that had been targeting them suddenly stopped and went limp.
Around the corner, the two of them stopped.
Solo was there, both hands behind his back in the deathly grip of his half-sister, Eva. Near them was another person in a lab coat, who was standing next to a dead body in a wheel chair.
"Solo!!!" Duo cried out.
The boy, who noticed his father's arrival, cried out. "Dad!!"
"Welcome to the show," the man in a lab coat said. "You'd better not get too close or your son will be a goner like her, Maxwell."
"Omae... "The American gritted his teeth.
Heero nudged his friend lightly and whispered, "Duo... that's Dr. I."
"I thought Dr. I was a she."
"She was. I was talking about the dead body."
Duo realized with a start that the dead woman was indeed said doctor. //Shit! What kind of guy would shoot his own boss?!//
"Release the boy!" Heero ordered Veejay, aiming his gun toward him.
The man smirked and said, "I'm not holding him captive. It's your daughter who is. Why don't you tell her to?"
Heero flinched. His eyes were full of pain as he eyed his daughter and Solo. "Eva...," he called.
No response.
"Eva, please let him go."
Still no response.
"Eva... ore o kikoeru ka? Otousan da yo. Kikoeru n darou?"[1]
The girl's eyes were blank. There was no sign that she recognized her father. That fact hurt Heero more than anything.
Veejay's laughter made the ex-pilot turn his attention toward the man. "Ah! I forgot to mention one thing. Since Eva proved to be uncooperative when we abducted her last year, our dear Dr. I here," he prodded the dead doctor's shoulder, "performed a little surgery on your daughter's brain."
Heero's eyes widened. He stammered, "What... did you say...?"
The man laughed again. "Well, let's just say that the little innocent Eva Yuy we know is still in there. Somewhere. She still can see, feel, think. We just blocked her way out and replaced it with an AI that is intellegent enough to perform on its own, but still under our control."
At the man's confession, both Heero and Duo were horrified. Duo snarled, "How could you! That's worse than killing her!" To imagine that the little girl was forced to see herself killing people, people she didn't even want to harm at all, the people she loved. "You are sick!"
"Yeah, whatever. And I might as well enjoy it." Veejay waved his hand nonchalantly before acquiring a smirk Heero had come to hate. "You know, the second I order her, she will do exactly what she's being told. I could have ordered him to kill Solo, you know. It would be very interesting, ne? To see your daughter kill her own half-brother."
That statement left all the others but the stoic girl in shock.
"I won't let you." Heero's grip on the gun tightened. "I will kill you and get my daughter back to her life. I can kill you before you even know it. "
To their horror, the Indian smirked. "Oh, really? It's not as if I care."
Heero's eyes widened in horror.
Veejay smirked and cried out his order. "Eva! Kill the boy!!"
"NO!!"
After that, everything went as if in slow motion.
Mechanically, Eva released her hold on Solo and pushed him forward, sending the boy to the floor before pulling out her gun.
Duo dashed toward his son as Heero shot the Indian in the head and instinctly turned his gun on his daughter as he realized that he was too late to stop the order.
Solo's eyes widened as Eva aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.
Two gunshots were heard.
Somebody screamed.
CRACK!
Wufei just stared as without any apparent cause, his teacup cracked on its side before it shattered and fell with its contents on his lap.
Sally entered her husband's room, only to be greeted by the sight of him staring at the remains of the broken cup in his hand. "Wufei!" She rushed to his side. As she took care of the broken pieces, she noticed the blank look on her husband's face. "...Wufei?"
The Chinese said nothing. He just shook his head and turned a distant look towards the window.
Vier sliced another mobile doll. He finally stopped as he noticed that the dolls were no longer attacking them. "Did they make it?" he pondered as he tried to contact Trowa. "Trowa-san. Come in, Trowa-san."
There was no response from the older man.
The boy frowned. The man's mobile suit was only a few meters before his and he knew that the other was all right. Trowa was too tough compared to the mobile dolls. Vier tried to call him again. "Trowa-san?"
There was a slight white noise before the man finally answered, sounded he was like in daze. "... Yes?"
"Are you all right?"
"... Yes... "
In fact, Trowa was all right. He was just stunned as he saw... his tears... floating in zero gravity.
Quatre stared through the window. His face was a mixture of sadness and pain. His right hand was touching the cool glass panel, while the other one clutched at his chest. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
The door behind him opened. Relena entered the room. "Quatre, it's time to... " she trailed off as she noticed his husband's silence. "Quatre? Is there something wrong?"
The man wiped the tear and its trace with the back of his hand and turned around. "Relena... ," he said as he approached his wife. "About our new child... "
"Yes?"
"If it's another boy, can we call him 'Duo'?"
Her eyes widened at that. "Quatre... ?"
He kept silent.
Relena, having been his wife for years, already understood him inside out. The edge of her eyes started to brim with tears. "Masaka..."
The Arabian bowed his head and buried it in the crook of her neck. She moved her hands around him, and leaned her head against his. They stayed like that for a while, grieving without tears.
There had been enough tears shed already.
The boy watched in horror as his father's body fell down with a loud thud. He waited, but his father didn't move again. His eyes were still closed. Red was slowly pooling under him, darkening his already black shirt. That red came from a hole on his chest that happened to be the place where his heart was supposed to be...
Solo was frozen on the spot, for God only knew how long. When he finally had the strength to move, he did the only thing he could do.
He numbly reached forward, shaking the body a little. When there was no response, he shook a little harder, this time calling, "...Dad?"
There was still no response.
He cradled his father's body and checked for any sign of life. Anything that indicated that he was still alive. He checked his pulse. He checked his heartbeat. "Dad?"
Nothing. There was nothing.
"Dad... wake up... please... please, wake up... you've gotta be kidding me... don't die on me... you can't leave now..."
His plea was getting louder and louder to the point that he was practically screaming, "You can't leave me now! Please! I beg you! Don't leave me alone! Don't go! Please, Dad!"
"DAD!!!"
He finally broke down sobbing, his father's paling cheek against his wet one. The litany was now a whimper, occasionally interrupted by sobs "Please... don't go... I need you... don't leave me alone... Dad..."
Not far from the boy, Heero was still standing. His posture was still. The hand that held the gun was rigid, before it finally went lax, causing the metal to drop to the floor with a clunk.
He didn't notice it. He didn't hear it. He didn't feel it. All he knew, all he saw now, was his broken world, shattered in pieces that could never be put back together again, ever.
The only man he had ever loved was no longer breathing, no longer smiling, no longer looking at him with those eyes, no longer calling his name with that husky voice.
Because he was no longer there. _Her_ bullet had killed him instantly.
And not far from his body, was hers. Eva, his daughter, who was at last free from the people who had been controlling her, but could no longer come back to him again.
Because _his_ bullet, shot by the gun in _his own_ hand, had killed her instantly.
There was nothing left for him anymore.
Not a thing...
Not anymore...
End of Chapter Three
Note: [1] Trans: "Eva... can you hear me? It's Otousan. You can hear me, can't you?"
Revised with the help of Tyr.
Okay, that's it. C&C are _very_ welcomed. ^_^
Hime D.
Please send comments to: hime1999@yahoo.com