Disclaimer: See previous part(s). Oleksandr Schbeiker belongs to my little brother.
Wednesday, July 10 AC 198
Melita Khushrenada nervously sat down at
the desk in her room. She awaited the call from her father. Customarily she had
nothing to fear from him, but she sensed that this time he would be able to
tell something was afoot. She trembled when she thought of what he might do or
say if he found out she had betrayed him and was now helping the people he
despised most capture him.
“Perhaps,” she said to no one in the room, she knew there were listening devices around though, “we should not even attempt this. My father has a legion of lawyers; this may not work. If it doesn’t, I am afraid of what my father would do to me.” She whimpered a little. When no one came or said anything, she knew they weren’t going to listen to her pleas. Then, she began to be afraid that they might think she is a traitor to them. Her father hated the Preventers and everything they stood for, but she was quite scared of getting them mad. In any other situation, her father would have the lawyers working on her side, but if she got into trouble now, there would be no one in her family that would be willing to bail her out. They may even force her to switch her name for a more common one.
A light signaled to let Melita know she had a call, she turned on the vid-screen and answered it, “Hello”
“Melita, have you had any success?” her father asked.
“Yes, I have,” Melita said as convincing as she could, “Cousin Dorothy fully trusts me, as does her friend, Relena Dorlian."
“Good.”
“Do you have any orders for me now?”
“I have one small request,” her father said with a smile.
“Y-yes?” stuttered Melita. She had been sure by now he’d figure out this was all a set-up.
“Is there something wrong, my dear? You seem anxious about something,” he said with concern in his tone.
“I…I just wish to make you proud Father,” she lied.
“Melita, my child, you make me proud all the time,” he said very fatherly with a smile to back it up.
Melita, herself, blushed and smiled a little, “You are a kind father.”
“Thank you. Now, I need you to take your cousin, Relena Dorlian, and your little second cousin, Mariemaia Khushrenada, to an abandoned warehouse. It is just outside of Ogramia Street.”
“Yes, Father. What will I say to get Mariemaia with us?” she inquired.
“Let Dorothy know that you wish to meet her since you barely know her. Melita, you always are willing to meet with everyone in the family. With Une nearby,” Melita’s heart skipped a beat as she thought he had found out, “for that conference with the President and the other committees, you should have no trouble finding the young child.”
Melita breathed a sigh of relief. He still didn’t know.
“Make sure you bring that Kiara doll,” he instructed.
“Kiara? Why?” asked Melita. She had almost forgotten about the doll.
“You will seen soon enough.”
“I trust you Father.”
“And one more thing?”
“Yes?” she asked, sure that he knew this time what was up.
“That pin, where did you get it?”
“Cousin Dorothy gave it to me as a present. Said it was for returning her favorite doll.”
“Oh, well, good-bye then,” her father said. The connection was cut and Melita flung herself to the bed. Relena and Dorothy came in to talk to Melita.
In the living room, Duo ate another rice ball. He, Wufei, Trowa, and Heero, who had just recently joined them, had been listening to the conversation from Melita’s pin.
“You think he knew about the pin?” Duo asked when he had swallowed his food.
“It’s hard to say.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Duo said, “Heero, you never told us why you came here anyway.”
“I was nearby and heard about what was going on with Melita Khushrenada. I have some of my own information,” Heero answered.
“What kind of information?” asked Duo.
“I knew there was more than one woman JL Khushrenada is after. I thought it was about five, but it seems he’s only after two or three.”
“Anything else?”
“Just fragments that have no meaning yet.”
“Why don’t you tell us? Maybe then they won’t be fragments,” suggested Duo.
“I’ve already told him all we know,” Wufei explained, “What was that thing you and Trowa found?”
“There was a small crystal found inside the arcet,” Trowa said, “It was in the shape of a diamond and didn’t break when Duo dropped it.”
“Maxwell dropped it?” snorted Wufei.
“I can’t help it if Hilde hugs too darn hard. She practically squeezed it out of my hand!” Duo defended.
“Has anyone talked with Quatre lately? He had that strange order from Melita’s father. He said it was for a security system,” Heero remarked.
“Security system?” chortled Duo.
“That’s what his excuse is,” Heero explained.
“Quatre said he’d join us soon. He’s having a meeting with Mr. Khushrenada this afternoon to see what this ‘security system’ looks like. Then he’s going to spend a few days convincing his sisters to delay his party they insisted on,” Trowa said.
Duo laughed, “I can’t believe Quatre doesn’t want a party. Even Relena throws huge ones.”
“And what is so bad about that?” asked Relena. She had just walked into the room.
“Oh, um, nothing,” Duo said, waving his arms in defense.
“I think it’s wonderful that Quatre is finally going back to how his life was before the war. It might calm him down a little from his father’s death,” Relena said, “What is the plan?”
“Well,” Sally explained as she entered the room with a cup of coffee, “you and the others will go as planned with the doll. We’ll be behind to get him if he tries anything.”
“That’s it?” Relena exclaimed in astonishment.
“We can’t arrest him for anything yet Miss Relena. We don’t have enough evidence. If we go with you, he’ll know something is up and we’ll have lost our chance,” Sally explained. Relena calmed down and agreed to it. She told Dorothy and Melita.
Friday, July 12 AC 198
“This is the place,” Melita told Pagan. He stopped the limo near the place and let them out.
“Thank you Pagan,” Relena acknowledged, “We’ll be fine.” Pagan drove away and vanished from their sights. Melita clutched the Kiara doll and guided them towards where her father had instructed them to go. None of the girls said a word. They walked to the eerie alley. Though it was the middle of the afternoon, it was pretty dark.
“Are you sure we’re safe?” Mariemaia asked timidly.
“Why of course we are,” Melita said, acting as well as she could.
“If you say so,”
Mariemaia said, unsure-like. They walked more into the alley and waited for
Melita’s father to come forth. They waited for about eight minutes.
“Melita, why are we here?” asked
Dorothy. She wanted to ask why Melita’s father didn’t show up, but that would
blow their “cover.”
“Oh, a surprise is going to be here,” Melita said. She held the Kiara doll tighter.
“Are you certain?” Relena asked. They looked around the alley.
Before Melita could answer, a voice came out from one of the buildings, “Melita.”
No answer came.
“Melita.”
“Y-yes?” answered Melita.
“You have dishonored me for the last time.”
“W-what do you mean?” she asked, terrified.
“You will no longer be in the way of your father,” the voice commanded, “Say good bye.”
Before Melita could respond, the Kiara doll exploded and Melita’s head was at the other end of the alley. Mariemaia started to throw up on the side of the passageway. Relena was still in shock from the scene they had just witnessed while Dorothy looked up at the surrounding buildings for the person who murdered her cousin. She had to know where to send the thank-you card.
Running footsteps could be heard approaching as Duo, Sally, Heero, Wufei, and Une came in view. Heero checked on Relena and then he and Duo searched the buildings for any traces of the mysterious voice. Sally and Wufei checked on Melita’s dead body. Une tried to settle down Mariemaia.
“The doll was packed with explosives,” Wufei observed.
“Yes, it looks like they needed to have a detonation switch,” Sally said, “Though they tried to make it look like a timed bomb.”
“The target was Melita all along then?” Relena asked.
“Well, this time it was,” Sally said, “We still have reason to believe that there will be other targets.”
“Yes, the gundanium ordered and that particular arcet were not made just to throw us off the track. If it had been, they wouldn’t have been so specific in the arcet. They also wouldn’t have-”
“There wasn’t anything there to let us know who the person was,” Duo reported.
“Only a speaker, undoubtedly with no fingerprints on it,” Heero said. He tossed the item towards Une.
“What will we do now?” Dorothy asked, “They obviously knew that Melita had caved in. Or at least planned on her doing that.”
“We’ll just have to wait for something,” Wufei said. It was clear he didn’t like that strategy.
“We should get word from them,” Heero reassured, “They took Amaya Vandivier. She’s missing.”
Saturday, July 13 AC 198
“It’s been a month,” the shadowed face said, “Have you had any progress?”
“The gundanium is almost mine,” JL Khushrenada reported, “A scavenger has found our arcet with the Chivalric Crystal in it. I’m sure he’s taken it apart and found it; I’ll have to up the payment.”
“Yes,” agreed the shadow.
“Winner will be easy enough. I have his date,” JL said as he showed Amaya. She was tied up, gagged, and unconscious.
“Good,” the shadow smiled, “The young man will cave in readily when he finds out what happened to her. I hope you don’t do anything drastic though.”
“I won’t.”
“What about your daughter and the girl?”
“Everything went as planned. My daughter told the Preventers. They tried to set me up and now she has paid for her incompetence. She is dead now. The girl is shaken up, but she is not being guarded at the time. She will be easy to take.”
“Are you sure this is the time to execute our plan?”
“We have no choice now. Melita’s death will wear off soon. They will soon forget about her.”
“…And we need them to keep that on their minds.”
“Yes”
Monday, July 15 AC 198-17:35
“Dorothy, are you okay?” Relena asked.
“I’m fine,” Dorothy said, “I didn’t really know Melita that well.”
“Well, you can still…”
“TURN ON THE TELEVISION TO CHANNEL 5!” someone yelled. Everyone in the household turned on the nearest television.
“And updating our top story,” reported a news anchor, “Amaya Vandivier was taken from her home on Thursday, July 11th. You heard her family’s request to have her returned safely home earlier. Now, we know that three other young ladies were taken from their homes too. Sylvia Noventa was taken on July 12th, and twins Carol and Linda Treinta were taken on July 14th. We have Matt Freight out reporting, Matt?”
“Thank you Monica,” Matt said, “No one knows why, but four young girls were taken from their wealthy homes. There seems to be nothing the four have in common except that they all have fairly wealthy families, are between the ages of 17 and 19, and are blonde. Each family has received no ransom notes or anything from the kidnappers. Which leads the police to question, why were these girls taken?
“The police and families declined to be interviewed on camera, but say that they are hopeful of the girls being returned alive. Many have already pointed the finger at terrorists. We have contacted the Preventers and they are not returning our calls. One can only wonder why.”
“Maybe because we never got them!” Duo yelled at the television.
“Well perhaps they are just very busy on finding those girls,” suggested Monica, the anchorwoman.
“Perhaps…or perhaps they are just part of the conspiracy. The conspiracy that the Preventers will attempt to take over the world just like White Fang, Mariemaia’s army, Oz, Romefeller Foundation, and the Alliance! Only they will succeed for years to come!” at this point, Matt started to laugh uncontrollably. The station cut back to Monica who had a disturbed look on her face.
“We are sorry about that. Something seems to have gotten into Matt. His opinions do not reflect upon those of this station,” she apologized, then decided that it was better to move on to a different story.
“It seems as though you were right about they’re being five girls. They just need to grab one more girl.”
“…Relena”
“Most likely, yes”
Monday, July 15 AC 198-21:00
“Noin, we’re here,” Zechs announced. Noin looked up from her book and saw that they were at Relena’s house. The two got out of the car and knocked on the door. Once they got to Relena, they were greeted with cries of surprise and hugs.
“How long do you plan on staying?” Duo asked.
“Only about a week,” Noin said, “We’re really needed on Mars. We just decided that it was time to visit Relena. We haven’t seen each other in such a long time.” She looked around at everyone. “Everyone’s here…except…”
“Quatre,” Trowa filled, “He can’t get away from the company.”
“He’s busy,” Zechs said. They all talked about what had happened. Zechs and Noin were shocked that Melita had died, but they seemed a bit relieved that now they didn’t have to worry about midnight strangles. After talking about the conspiracy, they settled for discussing what was going on in their lives now.
Wufei had gotten a new apartment but was very behind on his sleep. Sally kept annoying Wufei about keeping better care of himself, and she had gotten a new boyfriend. She really liked this one; of course she always really liked them. Duo and Hilde were expecting a baby girl in about five or six months, and their business was going moderately well, except that they were a little behind schedule. There was still no talk of marriage. Relena was busy in the spotlight as usual. She had gone on a few dates with a lad named Gerry Ambling, but nothing serious was happening yet. Noin and Zechs were married and lived on Mars, mainly supervising the work. Trowa and Catherine were still in the circus performing their acts, but Catherine slipped that Trowa was seeing a girl named Midii Une. Mariemaia was entering a new school next term and was very excited while Une was busy with the Preventers. She didn’t seem too pleased to hear about Wufei’s sleeping problems. Dorothy wasn’t sure what she was going to do next. She had just finished putting her family’s affairs into order. Heero wouldn’t say what he was doing. He was seeing a girl, but that was all he’d say. Relena seemed a bit upset about that, but she wished them both the best of luck.
After that, they went to bed.
Wednesday, July 17 AC 198
“Duo!” Hilde called as she searched for him.
“Yeah?” Duo asked sleepily.
“You won’t believe what happened!”
“What?”
“Quatre invited Dorothy and Relena to his place, remember?”
“Yeah”
“It…It…It blew up! All three are presumed dead!”
“What?!”
“The kidnappers released those twins too. Carol and Linda? They had a recording with them. Sylvia and Amaya are also presumed dead.”
“Hilde…are you sure babe?”
“Duo, it was all over the news. Most of the others refuse to believe it, but that’s what the public thinks now. People are starting to get mad.”
“I bet they are. Where is everyone else?”
“Downstairs, in the dining room”
“Thanks,” Duo said as he dashed down to meet everyone. They were all talking at the same time, trying to figure out what went wrong. Rasid and Abdul were also there. Duo overheard them say something about not starting things on Wednesday and the bad luck of it all.
“What happened?” Duo asked no one in particular, “Hilde said that Quatre, Relena, Dorothy, Sylvia, and Amaya are dead. What’s going on?”
“That’s what this JL Khushrenada wants us to think,” Wufei said, “Quatre would never let anything happen like that in his own home. This is all a hoax.”
“Then where are they now?” asked Relena’s adoptive mother.
“Quatre probably took them somewhere safe until it dies down a little. When things look safe, we’ll see them again,” Trowa answered.
“What about Sylvia?” asked Sylvia’s grandmother.
“And Amaya?” asked Amaya’s mother. Her father had had to stay at home.
“Calm down,” soothed Lady Une, “I’m sure that wasn’t real footage. He wouldn’t be that stupid. He’s just trying to get the public stirred up.”
“Well, he did a damn good job at it,” replied Mrs. Vandivier, “People are already demanding justice for Relena’s death!”
“She’s right!” Mrs. Dorlian agreed.
“If Sylvia is still alive, then what is he doing with her?” Mrs. Noventa asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Une said. She could tell the ladies were getting a bit ticked.
“We’ll let you know as soon as we know something,” Heero said.
“We will,” Une reassured, “I’m sure this is hard on you. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to Mariemaia, but you have to trust me. We’re doing all that we can.”
“I am going back to my hotel room,” Mrs. Vandivier let known.
“As am I,” said Mrs. Dorlian.
“I will trust you on letting me know when you find something. I will trust you that you are doing all that you can,” Mrs. Vandivier finished. She and Mrs. Dorlian went back to the hotel. They looked like they were becoming fast friends with their daughters’ disappearances.
“I pray that you bring back those children safely,” Mrs. Noventa said as she glanced around, “Please do not take this the wrong way. You are all so young, and this is case must be close to your hearts. I would, as I’m sure the other ladies would, feel much better if you had a little guidance from your older comrades.” With that, Mrs. Noventa left the house. Before she walked out the door, she had glanced at Zechs, Noin, Une, Catherine, Rasid, Abdul, and Sally. It was obvious that she meant for them to be in charge, and not the Gundam pilots.
“We are doing all that we can,” Une repeated.
Friday, July 19 AC 198
Relena sighed desperately as she looked at the blank walls of the cell. Whenever she had been kidnapped, she usually was in a nicer room, was taken care of, but this time was different. The public had been made to think she, along with Dorothy and Quatre, had been killed in an explosion. Their captures had no reason to accommodate them.
“Will we ever get to meet who took us?” Relena asked.
“Eventually,” answered Dorothy, “but don’t count on it being any time soon.”
“I’m sure JL Khushrenada is behind this,” Quatre said.
“As am I,” Dorothy agreed, “I would expect him to not care about our cell. He killed his own daughter because she got in the way. He was the one who forced her to be involved.”
“I wonder how everyone out there is taking this,” Relena wondered.
“Probably not well,” Quatre said.
“Especially if they think the golden-children, Relena Dorlian and Quatre Raberba Winner, were killed in that mock explosion,” Dorothy said.
“Oh Dorothy,” Relena sighed.
“I’m not jealous Miss Relena,” Dorothy let known, “I’m just stating how the public sees you two. I really don’t want to be in that situation.”
“Oh,” Relena said, “I hope the Preventers can find us soon.”
“I’m sure they will,” Quatre said, hopeful. He looked at the bleak walls. There weren’t any windows. They had no way of telling if it was day or night, except by their watches.
“I wonder what our neighbors are doing,” Relena wondered. The cell next to them had been loud a few times. Mainly they heard screams and sighs, but every now and then they heard banging.
“Sounds like someone who’s impatient,” Dorothy observed.
“I wonder how those girls are,” Quatre said.
“Which girls?”
“Sylvia, those twins, Carol and Linda…” Quatre explained.
“…and Amaya”
“Yes”
“Didn’t you have a birthday a few days ago, Quatre?” Relena asked, avoiding that subject.
“Yeah, I did,” Quatre said, he apparently forgot about it, “My sisters had delayed the party until everyone could make it.”
“What a great present,” Dorothy said as she gestured towards their cell.
“Yeah…what a great birthday present.”
Saturday, July 20 AC 198
“Sylvia, we’re never going to get out of here,” Amaya said, exasperated.
“Cheer up! Have some faith,” Sylvia said in her most cheery voice, “I’m sure we’ll be rescued any minute now. The Preventers will come, and they’ll have Quatre.” Sylvia nudged Amaya with her elbow. Amaya giggled and playfully shoved Sylvia.
“They let out Carol and Linda, why not us?” Amaya asked.
“I’m sure it’s part of their ploy,” Sylvia reassured….
“Sylvia, you know they made it look like they killed us. Your grandmother is going to have a heart attack and my parents are going to be demanding blood,” Amaya reminded her.
“Well, that is a disadvantage,” Sylvia said.
“A disadvantage? They think we’re dead!”
“Okay, okay, so it’s a really bad thing. But I don’t think Heero and them will think that we’re dead. They’d at least search for our bodies.”
“Your optimism makes me sick,” Amaya said as lay down on the floor with her arms and legs sprung out. She let out a small scream.
Sylvia put her hands to her ears, “Will you stop THAT?”
“I can’t help it. I’m bored,” Amaya explained. She sat up, grabbed Sylvia’s arm, and looked at her watch. “Today’s my birthday.”
“It is?”
“Yep, I’m seventeen,” Amaya said, “I hate my life.”
“Seventeen?” Sylvia echoed, “You must be happy.”
“Happy? Happy that I’ve spent my birthday in a cell? Happy that I was kidnapped for God knows how long? Happy that my parents, not to mention everyone else, think I’m dead? All because one man is insane enough to do that? Oh yeah, I’m real happy,” Amaya said with a disgusted look on her face.
“You’re cranky again,” Sylvia commanded, “Take a nap.”
“Fine, fine,” Amaya obeyed. She yawned and curled up into a ball. Within ten minutes she was asleep. Sylvia did the same.
Tuesday, July 23 AC 198-11:30
“This is a nice brunch,” Mrs. Dorlian commented. She and Mrs. Vandivier were on the terrace of the hotel where brunch was being served. It was sunny, a few clouds, and the view was “spectacular.”
“Yes, it is,” Mrs. Vandivier said as she sipped her drink, “Have you heard about the troubles of the world?”
“You mean of my Relena and your Amaya missing and presumed dead?”
“No, I mean of that young man, Oleksandr Schbeiker, and what he’s done.”
“I haven’t heard. What has happened?”
“As you know, with all the children’s deaths, the people are very mad. They don’t see the Preventers as being able to help them. Many thought it was the start of another war.”
“Yes, yes, I know
that part.”
“Well, some boy, only fourteen mind
you, has taken the opportunity of this chaos and has talked to the people,
offering them security and promising to be the new Relena Peacecraft. He has
already taken control of North, Central, and South Americas. It seems that he
next is going to Russia and Asia.”
“Oh my…” Mrs. Dorlian exclaimed.
“Yes, these are strange times,” Mrs. Vandivier marked, “Our children supposedly die and the world is outraged and wants its own coup d’etat.”
“Quite strange,” Mrs. Dorlian agreed.
Tuesday, July 23 AC 198-15:00
“Argh!” Duo cried, “What is going on? Why don’t we see these things coming?”
“Calm down Maxwell,”
Wufei allayed, “That Schbeiker boy is of no concern. We can easily take him
out. The people won’t stay with him when Relena and the others show up, proving
they’re not dead. The person we need to be worried about is Khushrenada. JL is the one who now has access to the gundanium.”
“What do you mean?” asked Duo.
“He’s taken control of Mars and the
colonies with his small army. With unlimited access to the resource satellites,
he can make more mobile suits,” Sally explained, “He had stored a few suits
after the war.”
“So how are we going to deal with this?”
Duo asked. The phone rang and Sally answered it. Wufei and Duo couldn’t see who
was on the other end. Sally talked a little, her words couldn’t be heard, and
when she got off, she was pale.
“What’s the matter?” Wufei asked.
“Th-that was just Une,” Sally explained.
“So? What did she say?”
“The president is not pleased with what’s
been going on. He doesn’t feel that we’ve been working as hard as we should be
on the cases we should be paying attention to.”
“JL Khushrenada has been planning this
thing since before Wufei and I were even born! How can he expect you to be able
to keep that in line?” Duo argued, “And that Oleksandr kid is only a minor
inconvenience. You said he’ll be easy. He doesn’t have any mobile suits.”
“The president is probably mad about
Relena,” Wufei said, “In a few days he’ll get over the shock and then he’ll be
begging us to work harder. He does it all the time.”
“No Wufei,” Sally said, “it’s much worse
than that.”
“How worse?”
“He’s cut our funding. Right now we’re
allowed to exist, but we don’t have a budget anymore. It’s only a matter of
time before the Preventers are disbanded….”
Wednesday, July 24 AC 198
Lady Une watched Mariemaia play a board game. She played the game by herself, using imaginary friends as competitors. Une had tried to get Mariemaia to make more friends, but the girl had grown up playing by herself and didn’t see a reason to change now.
“Mariemaia, are you happy?” Une asked abruptly.
“Yes, I am,” Mariemaia answered, “I told you that I like to play by myself. It’s more of a challenge that way.”
“I know you’ve told me. That’s not what I was talking about.”
“Then what was it?”
“I’m out of a job.”
“What? How can you…?”
“The president is not happy with the way I handle things. He’s cut the funding for the Preventers. I have stepped down from my position in hopes that he’ll allow the agency to continue under new leadership.”
“Whatever will we do?”
“Don’t worry, I have a lot of money away in savings until we find a new job.”
“Do you think it’ll be hard to find a new one?”
“I don’t know. It’s been so long since I’ve had to worry about that.”
“What about everyone else? Mr. Wufei, Ms. Sally, Mr. Duo…and Mr. Heero?”
“They’ll continue to do their jobs.”
“…Will I ever see them again?”
“I don’t know. I have a plane ready for us in the morning. We’ll pack tonight and head back to my homeland.”
“Where is that?”
“I am from Germany.”
Thursday, July 25 AC 198
“Heero, you didn’t do a good job,” the woman teased.
“Hn” was the response she got.
“You were suppose to stop all of this. The opposite has happened. More stuff has happened!”
“There’s still time. It hasn’t been long enough to make more mobile suits. He’s still pretty stoppable,” Heero explained. He started to type on his laptop.
“What about Oleksandr Schbeiker?” she questioned, “And how will you defeat him? You have no mobile suits! I know that he doesn’t have a lot, but he does have more than you can handle without a suit.”
“I can just steal one of the suits,” Heero said.
“Heero…Heero Heero Heero,” she said.
“What?”
“I think you and your fellow pilots need to go to this address,” she handed him a piece of paper, “My friend’s grandfather has a surprise for you. Be sure to bring anyone who’s willing to pilot a suit.”
“A surprise you say?”
“A good one…not as good as I could give you, but you’ll still like it.”
“If you say so….”
Saturday, July 27 AC 198-14:00
“Hey Heero!” Duo greeted, “Haven’t seen for a few days, thought you’d disappear again!”
Heero looked at Duo.
“Have you found out anything new Heero?” Trowa asked.
“Maybe. A trusted source said that we should visit this place,” Heero said and then added, “I’m told to bring anyone who’s willing to pilot a mobile suit.”
“I’ll go get Hilde...though I hate the thought of her out in battle, we’ll need her help,” Duo said.
“I’m sure Lady Une would come,” Trowa said.
“Yes, Zechs and Noin too,” Wufei added.
Saturday, July 27 AC 198-16:00
“So this is where our ‘surprise’ is?” Zechs asked, skeptical.
“Yes, it is,” Heero consoled, “It’s not a set-up. I got it from someone I actually trust.”
“Wow, Heero trusts someone,” Duo said with a smirk. He put his hands in his jacket and noticed he still had that crystal on him.
“I don’t see a place to get in,” Hilde stated. They were in front of a huge warehouse that appeared to have no windows or doors, no openings at all.
“Surely someone would meet us here,” Noin said. Just then, a man came out from behind. He had gray hair, sunglasses…and an ugly Hawaiian shirt on. It could only be…
“Howard!” yelled Duo.
“This is who we’re meeting?” Wufei asked no one in specific.
“Hey Duo!” Howard approached, “Long time, no see.”
“So you’re the one with a surprise for us?” Zechs asked.
“Yep!” Howard answered. He pulled out a remote control and hit a button. One of the walls started to go up like a garage door. Inside the warehouse were what the surprise was (and what a surprise it was!)….
“Wing Zero!”
“Deathscythe! Buddy!”
“Heavyarms!”
“Nataku!”
“Tallgeese?”
Given to Noin was the white Taurus, to Une was a Space Leo, and to Hilde was Epyon.
“I thought we destroyed the Gundams! I’m sure we did! I saw it. Howard, where did you…?”
“Well, I’ve kept the designs of them all. I made some spares during the war. My granddaughter’s friend was very impressed by these particular models, said that you’d be wanting these soon.”
“Well this friend was right.”
Saturday, July 27 AC 198-21:00
“Dorothy…” Relena started again.
“Miss Relena, we’re not going through this again. We have no idea what’s going on,” Dorothy reminded her.
“I know,” Relena said, “But I don’t see where they took our neighbors!” A few days ago, their neighbors had been taken away, quite forcefully. Listening to the screeches of the inhabitants, they found out that their neighbors had been Sylvia and Amaya.
“No one knows. They’ll probably move us soon anyway,” Quatre said.
“But what are they going to do? What are they planning?” Relena speculated, “I wish I knew what was going on.”
“We all do,” Quatre said.
“Miss Relena,” started Dorothy, “If you just—”
A violent crushing noise interrupted Dorothy.
“What’s going on?” screamed Relena.
“It sounds like someone is trying to get in!” Quatre said.
“With a mobile suit!” added Dorothy.
“A mobile suit? I thought all of them were destroyed!” Relena exclaimed.
A claw tore through the wall.
“Apparently all weren’t!”
Sunday, July 28 AC 198
“I bet you’re wondering what all the bustle is about,” said JL Khushrenada.
“Well…yes,” Sylvia admitted.
“Last night, the Gundams appeared,” Khushrenada explained. The two girls’ eyes widened.
“They attacked my people. Luckily I had my army there. One of my men was foolish enough to try to kill your old neighbors, Relena Dorlian, Quatre Winner, and Dorothy Catalonia, by crushing their cell. Unfortunately for him, the three escaped and Winner was able to make it to his own Gundam. My men barely made it out alive,” Khushrenada finished.
“And what a shame that would be if they had died,” Amaya mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing!”
“Well, you better be nice to me Miss Vandivier,” Khushrenada warned, “Because we’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”
“What do you mean?” Amaya asked.
“You’re going to be my bargaining chip until I can get Miss Dorlian,” JL explained.
Before Amaya could object, he had a gun to her head. Sylvia was taken back to the cell, and JL opened a link with the Preventers, or what was the left of them. They had received many cutbacks, and only a few were left.
“JL Khushrenada,” Zechs answered, “What do you want?”
“Now, I know you may have won that small battle, but I know someone you wouldn’t want harmed,” Khushrenada said.
“Who is that?”
“I’m sure you can identify her, here,” Khushrenada pulled Amaya into view.
“Amaya!”
“Now tell that Winner brat that if he and your ‘darling’ sister don’t come back to me, then this young lady will suffer the price.”
Zechs just glared.
“Oh, and one more thing, I want my arcet with the crystal from that Maxwell kid.”
Okay, so the end of another part. How was this one? Quatresprincess2002@yahoo.com