Disclaimer:
See previous part(s).
Monday,
November 25 AC 198
At
Offices had turned up the heater to make
the work environment more comfortable. Still, the businessmen and –women wore
coats. They typed on their computers and printed copies of important documents.
Stay-at-home mothers and fathers were
finishing their own breakfast and were starting the day’s chores. Some were
heading toward the stores. Others were walking the roads. A few were taking
care of their small children who were too young to attend school. They went
about their daily lives, which was, they thought, near perfection. Not much
violence came to them; it happened out in those other colonies.
However, they were not informed that they
were doing this all for not. Their tests and trials of the day meant nothing.
Instead of fighting over petty things or staying in school, they should have
been with their families, telling each other how much they loved each other.
Regrettably, the peaceful people were not notified that this was what they were
supposed to do.
At
Wednesday,
November 27 AC 198
Relena was hyperventilating, Sylvia had
passed out two colonies ago, and Yen was becoming impatient. Five colonies had
perished in the past few minutes: L-1X3822, L-1T66413, L-2O3259, L-2S19965, and
L-3C421; L-1K274 had been detonated two days ago. She had used K274 to scare
the Vice Foreign Minister and guest into telling her about the crystal, but
after two days after watching it go off, they did not talk. Consequently, she
started discharging colony after colony in hopes of it “jogging their
memories.” They were forced to watch each one. It reminded Yen of something,
like she had seen it before somewhere, but she could not remember where.
Anyway, it had not worked. The Noventa girl lost consciousness after three
colonies, and now after five, it seemed Darlian would do the same.
“You can spare their lives,” Yen reminded
them, “All you have to tell me is everything on the subject of that crystal.
All you have to tell me right now is what its name is or what it’s made of.”
Yen smiled to be friendly but failed.
“We don’t know,” Relena told her again,
“Even if we did, we wouldn’t tell you!” She was near her edge. Innocent people
were dying, and she could not stop it at all. She would not give a person like
Yen the information even if she had it, but all she knew was that it was a
crystal. She hoped by now that the others knew about it.
“And I told you,” Yen said with a light
voice and strained smile, “That the people will continue to die unless you tell
me. I don’t care about the colonies at all, so don’t try to tell me about
killing my own people. You’ll just be wasting your time with that bull.”
“You can’t do this. You can’t be that
heartless!”
“And yet I am.
“No!” screamed Relena, “You can’t do that!
Those people didn’t do anything to you!”
“But they did do something to me,” a cool
voice let her know. Relena turned to see a young man in his mid-twenties. He
had short, dark blonde hair with icy blue eyes. He reminded her of Quatre even
though he was about six-foot-four, three inches taller than her friend.
Yen glared, “Go away.”
“You ignored my contacting two weeks ago,”
the man said, “I don’t like to be ignored.” Yen once again gave the order to
detonate the colony.
“Um, ma’am,”
“You really think I’d let you ruin them
all before they know why they’re dying?”
“What’s going on?” asked Relena. She
looked between the man and Yen.
“I will explain to you and your friend in
due time, Vice Foreign Minister,” the man explained, “I am taking the girls
with me.”
“No! They’re my prisoners,” protested Yen.
“They don’t have any information that you
want,” the gentleman reminded her, “The ones who know about that crystal of
JL’s are gone. Those pilots know now, and they’ll do anything to get it. Just
forget anything you want to do, Li Yen, until you come to me. When you do that,
I’ll let you go on like this again.” Yen fumed as he directed Relena out of the
room with his arm on her shoulder, leaving with her. He had a soldier carry
Sylvia with them.
Saturday,
November 30 AC 198
Sally rubbed her temples. Wufei sipped his
imaginary tea. Ling giggled and served her dolls once more. Wufei was having a
tea party with his daughter, and Sally sat in the room to talk to him.
“Who could have gotten rid of the
Gundams?” she wondered.
“It could only have been someone with
Gundam training,” Wufei explained as he patted Ling’s head, “There were
security measures there that Yuy, Barton, and I put in place. Maxwell also put
something up.”
“And only a Gundam pilot could have gotten
in and detonated them,” Sally finished with a sigh. What were they going to do
now?
“Yes, they were sparked off by their
self-detonation devices.”
“Papa, what happened?” asked the little
girl.
“Nothing for you to know,” Wufei
instructed.
“Wufei, what if they weren’t set off by
someone actually going inside the compound and hitting each switch?” suggested
Sally.
“Well, they weren’t,” Duo told her. He
walked inside and sat on a chair. Trowa followed him.
“We didn’t find a body, and if someone
physically self-detonated the Gundams, Hollard would have surely seen him and
there would be a body,” Trowa said.
“So what does that mean?” inquired Sally.
“He used a frequency,” Wufei said slowly.
“A frequency?”
“At a certain frequency, a Gundam will
explode,” clarified Duo, “It’s supposed to be a different frequency for each
Gundam, but I guess the scientists didn’t trust us all too well because they
made one frequency that would detonate all of them.”
“And they did make our new ones….”
“The ‘master frequency’ is supposed to be
near impossible to reach by chance, so the odds are in favor that this person
knew what he was doing,” Trowa informed, “He somehow found the ‘master
frequency.’”
“So it definitely is a relative of
Quatre’s. He must know the company pretty well,” Wufei said. He picked up Ling
who was beginning to get frightened, sensing the mood.
“Because all of that information is stored
in Quatre’s personal files,” Sally finished, “So what else could he do? Will he
do?”
“The only person who knows the full
contents of those files is Quatre,” Trowa said, “We have to get to him, but he
hasn’t contacted us at all, so he could still be captive.”
“Not quite, Nanashi,” Midii said as she
entered the room, “Quatre is on line four.” Duo called up the video-phone.
Quatre looked just as tired as they were.
“Yo! Quatre, what have you been doing?”
Duo asked him, trying to lighten up the mood some, “How long have you been up?
Why didn’t you call us?”
“It’s taken awhile to get a call out to
Earth. We’ve been out for more than three weeks, almost a month,” Quatre
explained.
“How are the girls?” asked Sally. Quatre
closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I’m not that sure,” he admitted, “A week
ago, Sylvia and Miss Relena were taken captive again. Amaya’s still free; she’s
with me.” He gestured to his left.
“I see,” Sally said, “So they’re gone
again? Great.”
“Quatre,” Trowa said, getting back to the
subject they needed, “Someone is getting access to your private files, chiefly
the ones on the Gundams.” Quatre had a look of alarm on his face. “He found
that ‘master frequency’ of the scientists and has detonated all of the
Gundams.”
“Those files are in my personal office in
my house,” Quatre told them, “Only my family members and I have access to
them.”
Duo sighed, “There is a man who was
controlling JL and is now controlling Yen. We have a vague idea of who he might
be.” They made sure the line was secure. After a few minutes of explaining what
they knew, Duo finished, “So you can see the conclusion we came to. I mean,
it’s hard to hide those facts. We think he’s a relative of yours.” Quatre
pressed his lips together tightly as he took it all in.
“Do you know anyone in your family who
would be this angry? He’s been infecting colonies and destroying them, too,”
Trowa queried.
Quatre looked down as he thought, “I don’t
know…. All of my relatives are pacifists and wouldn’t really do any of that.”
“Well, there’s someone who would,” Wufei
said, his daughter still in his arms, “So think of who in your family isn’t the
perfect little peace lover. Who’s the black sheep?”
“There is…. I remember one of my aunts
always seemed to be coming over to the house or we to her. She and my father
always got into it. I think she wanted money for weapons or something. Anyway,
she never got the money; she died when I was about eight. I know my cousin, her
son, was pretty upset about it. I suppose he could be behind it,” Quatre
remembered.
“What was his name?”
“Nabil…Nabil Winner.”
Monday,
December 2 AC 198
Dorothy looked at the doll. It was
unbelievable. She was sent a Kiara doll, just like the other two. She had not
told anyone yet; she wanted more time with her childhood friend.
“Kiara…” she said as if the name were a
mantra. Her hand went over the cloth. Why had she been given this doll? Who had
sent it? What was so special about this doll?
“I wonder why Kiara is so popular,” she
mused. Her hand went over the dolls dress once more, and she discovered a key
sewn into the hem of the dress. “A key? What’s this for?” She looked in the
package and found nothing.
“Hm,” she pondered, “I wonder if the other
two dolls have something.” She went to the safe that contained the other two
and opened it. Then she examined them. The doll that had gone to Hilde had
nothing on it, but Ling’s doll had a note. It was in Chinese, so she could not read
it.
“It must be a note for Wufei,” she
decided. She put it in her pocket and went back through the halls. There was
much to do, and she did not have a lot done.
“Once upon a time,” she said with a smile,
“there was a young woman of nineteen years. She continuously, it seemed, had
work to do. At first it was her family’s paperwork, and now she must help the
Gundam pilots. What will she do to help them? Why does she keep this doll of
hers, and why does she keep coming back? These answers can only be found in the
next few weeks. We will see how her place in this world changes.”
Wednesday,
December 4 AC 198
Relena sighed. Sylvia shook her head. It
was not a good day or a good couple of weeks in fact. Sylvia looked down at her
plate. What were they going to do? She bit her lip; neither of them could
really think of a plan to escape. That man still had them, and he claimed to be
Quatre’s cousin.
“What will we do now?” Sylvia asked
Relena.
“We don’t have anything to do,” Relena
picked at her food, “We don’t really have any meaning to be his prisoner except
that we know too much.”
Sylvia shrugged, “I guess we have to wait
until they come back for us.”
Relena did not like that suggestion
apparently, “It’s all I seem to do: wait to be rescued.”
“And what exactly did that man tell you to
think we can get out ourselves?” Sylvia asked her.
~~Flashback~~
As soon as they were at what seemed like
the man’s manor, Sylvia had come to, and the girls demanded that he explain
himself. He chuckled at them for a bit before clarifying.
“I don’t know about that crystal,” he
confessed, “That was JL’s personal thing. However, I do know where it is.”
“And where is that?” questioned Sylvia.
She tried to act as if she knew, but she did not know at all.
“Have you noticed little Miss Vandivier is
sporting a new ring?” he asked them. They stared at him, but he could tell they
had not. “I am fairly certain that my dear little cousin put the crystal in her
ring.”
“Then it is out of your hands,” Relena
said, satisfied with that at least.
“Yes, it is, but I don’t want the crystal.
I don’t plan on using a military force like Khushrenada did,” he informed them.
“So the crystal has a military use?”
Sylvia asked.
“As far as I can tell, it does,” the man
clarified, “He called it the Chivalric Crystal. It was necessary to keep him
happy.”
“Keep him happy? What kind of man are
you?” Relena asked him. He laughed, finding this apparently quite hilarious.
“James and Yen are just two of my pawns
that want to be in the spotlight, so I let them. No need for me to be in it;
I’ve been it for a lot of my life, and people do not go after the shadow they
do not see.”
“We’ve seen you. We know about you now.”
“I doubt you’ll get out being able to talk
about me.”
“Are you going to kill us?”
“We’ll see about it. Now, I’m sure you
remember hearing a few months ago that JL Khushrenada was out, looking for a
girl or two, and no one knew who they were or why. Well, Miss Noventa, one of
the girls was you. Your parents were part of the cause that killed my mother.
Your grandparents helped, too, so I needed you so that your family would feel
the loss as I did. Miss Darlian, well, I never intended to have you, to be perfectly
honest. I told James that it would be too much of a red flag to take you, but
he did, and then Yen took you as well. Now you have seen me, so I cannot let
you go. The other girl, well, she is taken care of.”
“Who are you? Why are you doing all this?”
“My mother was killed because of many
people. They began to rally against my family, and they caused her death. An
assassin, Steve Perry, killed her when he injected her with a deadly disease, a
virus, which James Lee Khushrenada was developing. How ironic that I used the
daughter of the assassin he used to kill my mother to kill him. He got
intolerant of my mother and had her executed.” He took a moment to collect
himself. “She just wanted to make the world better for the children.
“The colonies and cities that got infected
with the virus, they opposed the family so much that my mother was forced to
fight back. The colonies that are packed with explosives, waiting to be
discharged by Yen’s orders, opposed the family, too, but they tried to get us
out of space, so I’m getting them out of space….”
“This is insane!” Sylvia cried, “You can’t
just go out and get revenge on everyone!”
“Why are you doing it now?” Relena asked
him, “Who are you?”
“My dear, I’ve been doing this since I was
twenty, and my name is Nabil Winner.”
~~End
Flashback~~
Relena sighed, “He didn’t say anything
that makes me think we can escape on our own, but maybe we can just wait for an
opportunity.”
“You mean wait for the guys to come here
and escape while everyone’s busy?” Sylvia asked, “Sounds okay. I mean, we just
have to really on the guys coming here soon.”
“I’m sure they will.”
“They better.”
Thursday,
December 5 AC 198
“So what are we going to do about this?”
asked Noin, “Catherine already went back to Earth to deliver that message of
yours.”
“Good,” Zechs said. He picked up his
suitcase and went with Noin to the boarding dock.
“I’m almost surprised that we’re allowed
to travel between colonies and the moon,” Noin commented.
“It’s not that much of a surprise since
they are under one rule,” Zechs chronicled, “and that now the attacks from
Gundams have ceased.”
“Are you still a bit sore about that?”
Noin asked as they went through security, “One of us had to stay and get that
information. I had a suit for me and you did not. Get over it.”
“Hn,” was all he would remark. They took
their seats on a shuttle and settled in for a long flight.
“You are certain they’ll meet us at the
moon?” Noin questioned him.
“I’m
sure they will,” Zechs assured her, “They want to end this quickly just as much
as we do.” He closed his eyes.
“So what’s for us on the moon?”
“It’s what’s not for us on the moon.”
“The Winner resources aren’t near the moon
because those places already got their independence from the company.”
“And they did it very peacefully, so we
don’t have to worry about anything getting infected or blown up while we’re
there. Those seem to be his favorite thing to do. I guess when their loved ones
die before them, the Winners, especially the boys, like to wreak havoc and
destroy the colonies.”
“Zechs!” reprimanded Noin, “Don’t say
that.” Zechs just smirked.
Friday, December 6 AC 198
“Where are we going?” Amaya asked as she
followed Quatre.
“We’re heading to the moon.”
“Why are we setting off for there?”
“It’s where we’re meeting everyone else.”
“And I’m needed? I’m afraid I’ll just get
in the way.”
“I don’t trust you alone here,” Quatre
told her and added when he saw her look, “I’m going to need your ring, and we
may actually need you.”
“You really think I’ll be able to help?”
she asked a bit hopeful.
“I’ve talked with your father, and you can
be a great distraction if we need it. You can also watch over things while
we’re gone.”
“Why thank you for this important
position,” she sarcastically showed appreciation.
“You’re welcome,” Quatre responded,
“Here’s our gate.”
“A Winner shuttle? You managed to get
one?”
Quatre gave her a look, “It is mine, you
know….”
“Let me guess, you’re also a Gundam
pilot?” she finished.
“Now that you mention it, yes,” he added.
“Why is that the magical phrase? How did
that come to mean that you know what you’re doing and everything’s fine?”
“Because,” he teased her, “we’re Gundam
pilots, and that’s what we do.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed him some.
“It’s going to take some time, so we need
to leave in a hurry,” he ushered her onto the shuttle quickly.
“Where are we going to stay?” she
inquired.
“A place,” he answered.
“What place?”
“You’ll see.”
Tuesday,
December 10 AC 198-11:40
“Welcome to the moon,” received the
greeter. Heero and Wufei just glared at her. They were just a bit cantankerous.
Dorothy held a package in one hand. Sally and Catherine stretched as they got
off, ignoring the greeter. Duo sleepily walked off the shuttle, rubbing his eye
and yawning. Midii and Trowa thanked the greeter and went with everyone else to
get their bags. Jet followed from behind.
“Where are the others?” asked Catherine.
“They said they’d be meeting us here,”
Trowa informed.
“I think we’re meeting them at the
entrance-slash-exit of the ‘port,” Jet told them. They grabbed their bags and
went out to the “entrance-slash-exit” where Noin and Zechs were waiting for
them.
“So this is the moon,” Catherine said in
awe, looking around the mall-like building. The others nodded. Some were also
looking around, having never actually been there.
“So has Quatre gotten here yet?” asked
Midii.
“Yes, he is,” Noin answered, “Amaya came
with him, and they’re back at the rooms. She’s showing him something.” Duo
raised an eyebrow.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking, Duo,”
Dorothy told him, “I’m sure it’s not that.”
“Hey! Give me some credit here,” Duo
protested.
Tuesday,
December 10 AC 198-13:30
By this time, everyone had been settled in
and had eaten lunch. They were just waiting to make a plan and rest from their
trips.
“So what is this plan?” asked Wufei, “How
do you propose we defeat Li and Winner?”
“I’ve been able to contact some of my
cousins, and they say that he seems to take mysterious phone calls all the time
lately, but he always has a call on the thirteenth of each month,” Quatre
described.
“So are we going to do something that
day?” asked Jet.
“We need to have a plan, but we also need
to wait until after the thirteenth,” Quatre told them.
“In case something changes?” Heero asked.
Quatre nodded.
“It would be to our disadvantage,” Duo
pointed out.
“It’s only three days away, and I think he
is getting a bit fed up with Li Yen. As angry as he was when his mother died,
he wants the colonies to suffer, but Li Yen has ignited L-4Q1162, L-4V8100, and
L-4D368 earlier today,” Quatre said.
“How many more colonies are going to have
to blow up?” wondered Duo.
“Have you thought of anything, Quatre?”
Trowa asked.
“So far just that we need a distraction
and Amaya can do that from here. I was waiting for everyone to get here,”
Quatre declared.
“And what will Miss Vandivier do?”
questioned Zechs.
“She can override their lines so that they
can’t communicate with anyone, including each other,” Quatre informed.
“How can she do that?” Sally speculated.
Quatre opened his mouth, but Amaya’s voice
came, “It’s easy enough for me to put up one image or voice on all the lines.
I’ve pirated a lot of music videos, songs, animated pictures, short movies, and
things like that off the internet, so I have an abundant source to put up
through the lines. I could have them eternally watching little kid shows
whenever they try to make a call or give an order to a soldier.”
“And how did you learn this?” Duo
inquired.
“My father was not the easiest man to be
under the rule of. He had a bunch of disgruntled soldiers under his command.
They were willing to teach me almost anything in order to get back at him, even
the tiniest amount. I learned a lot about computers and government documents,”
she explained.
“So does it just override all lines of
communication or just those used by Yen and her posse?” asked Noin. Amaya
shifted in her chair by the computer.
“Right now I can just override every
single line of communication, even yours. I never learned how to do just one or
two,” she confessed.
“We have a few days,” Midii reminded them,
“The boys could just put a code in there if they have to.”
Catherine nodded, “That’s true.”
“And Heero could teach you, Amaya, how to
keep on line open with the right code,” Jet volunteered, “Isn’t that right,
Heero?”
“What?” Heero practically growled. He did
not plan on teaching anyone at the moment.
“Well, even if you do open a line for her,
she’ll need to know how to monitor it so that we don’t get stuck with an
annoying song or children’s video,” Jet pointed out with an innocent smile.
Heero muttered something that sounded almost like an “okay, fine.”
“So while Yuy teaches the girl how to keep
a line open, the rest of us will come up with a plan,” Wufei recapped.
“Sounds like a plan,” Sally said as she
stood and stretched, “I need to go for a walk.” The others also got up and went
to do other things. However, Dorothy, still clutching the package, did not say
a word as to where she was going. She slipped out the door and made sure no one
followed her as she went down the halls.
Tuesday,
December 10 AC 198-14:15
Dorothy went through the secret door that
she knew was there; she slipped into a small room with just a desk, a desk lamp,
and a chair. She sat in the chair and took out the key from the hem of her
doll. After putting the package on the desktop, she used the key to open one of
the locked drawers. Inside it was the note she had hoped to find. She took it
out but was angry to find that the note was not what she needed.
Dear Cousin Dorothy,
I am happy that you came
this far in your search for the truth. You do not know how happy I am that you
are willing to go this length for peace. Your friend, Miss Relena, should be
proud, but I do not think that you have told any of your friends about this,
have you. You are near the truth that you seek. Please be patient. If I had not
left a winding trail, my father would have found it, and you would never know
about it. I do love you, my dear cousin. Please forgive me one day.
Affectionately,
Melita Khushrenada
Thursday,
December 12 AC 198
Mariemaia sighed, “This sucks.”
“Well, we did leave Deutschland,” Carla
reminded.
“But does that mean we have to stay here
with a nanny and Wufei’s little girl?” asked Mariemaia. Ling was playing with
her doll still.
“I guess it does,” Carla said, “It’s
almost time for Weihnachten, and my mother will want me home.”
“Can’t you spend Christmas with us?”
Mariemaia asked.
“Nein, my grandmother is coming over,” Carla told her.
“What’s Weihnacthen?” inquired Ling.
“What’s the word in English?” requested
Carla.
“It’s Christmas,” explained Mariemaia.
“What’s Christmas?” asked Ling.
“Ask your father,” instructed Carla,
knowing good could not come from their explanation.
“Time for bed,” the nanny told Ling,
picking her up, “Soon it will be yours, too,” she reminded the other girls.
They nodded and let her know that they understood.
“How long will we be here?” Mariemaia once
again sighed.
“Until that man and lady die, I guess,”
her friend let her know.
“I don’t care if we do deserve it,”
Mariemaia told her, “This still sucks.”
Friday,
December 13 AC 198
“It’s Friday Thirteenth,” informed the
shadow, “Are you scared?”
“I don’t believe in those Western
superstitions,” Yen told him.
“Good, nor do I,” he confessed, “I’m glad
you finally talked to me. However, you have destroyed four colonies since then.
Your recent one was L-5A15662. No more, I won’t let you do anymore.”
“And how will you stop me? I have hackers
now that will override any of your stupid codes.”
“You’re a boring pawn, now, Yen. You’re
too impatient. I want the people to suffer, but you’re simply not letting them
do that. Unfortunately, I have to let you go,” he told her.
“Let me go?” Yen questioned, “What do you
mean? You can’t just terminate me!”
“You said it, not me.”
“Said what?”
Colony L-5W313, which contained Li Yen,
and all mobile suits suddenly exploded.
Saturday,
December 14 AC 198
Dorothy reached another area where her
dear cousin left her another note:
Dear Cousin Dora,
Does Dora not suit you? Well, I like it,
and it is shorter than Dorothy is, so I shall call you Dora for the rest of
these letters. Yes, there are more letters. I am sorry. However, this one is
not in vain, for I will give you some information that you may like to know.
Please try to understand why I must leave many letters for you to follow.
As
you may have found, there are other Kiara dolls out there. Possibly, one
destroyed me, but rest assured that it was the only dangerous one. The others
are meant to scare you. But, they do have more of a purpose than that. I think
one is going to a father who knew not of his daughter, and a note (have you
discovered it yet?) explaining this is with one of them. The other one is a
warning that those are getting too near, yet it also contains something more.
Do you know yet? Check its bow. The owner(s) will find a pleasant surprise that
will help she/he/them for a few years.
You are getting closer, just a few more
steps. Soon you will have your doll, the original. Are you excited? I hope so.
I love you, my cherished cousin. Please, forgive me.
Affectionately,
Melita Khushrenada
Sunday,
December 15 AC 198
“Yen is gone,” Jet said, “
“Yes,” Heero said.
“So have you finished with Amaya
Vandivier?”
“She knows all that she needs to. She
should be good enough for tying up the lines.”
“And it didn’t kill you,” she pointed out.
“Hn”
“What’s the plan?”
“On Tuesday, Quatre and Dorothy are going
to see Nabil. Apparently, he’s kept contacts with his family, so we know where
he is. While they’re doing that, we’ll get into positions. Noin and Zechs will
find all his labs for the viruses and diseases and take care of them. Catherine
and Sally will get on the colony and be ready to move. They’ll rescue Relena
and Sylvia, and Sally can give them a quick check up. You and I are going to
burn and destroy all his files; then I’ll assassinate him.” She rolled her
eyes. “Duo and Wufei will shut down the remaining plants for Khushrenada’s and
Yen’s mobile suits, and then they’ll join Trowa and Midii with taking care of
the remaining soldiers and helping the civilians.”
“What about Une?”
“She hasn’t shown yet. Whatever happened
to your friend, Alex?” Heero inquired.
“Sally went to see her; she says whatever
her wounds were, they killed her,” Jet replied, “Well, this sounds like a
plan.”
Monday,
December 16 AC 198-03:25
Relena stared at him. Every fiber of
herself hated him. He was the cause of most of her problems when she started to
make the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. She had not known it yet, but he had been
manipulating most of those events and occurrences. He had even helped Dekim
Barton some, though she was not sure how. He smirked at her, knowing he was in
complete control of the situation, and she hated him.
“How can you do this?” she asked, “How can
you do that to them?”
“They wanted something, and I helped them
achieve it.”
“You killed them, too!”
“Nothing lasts forever. They should know
that. Someone else needs their fifteen minutes.”
“Khushrenada got longer than Yen.”
“James Lee played the game better than
Yen. She wanted her own way, and her way bored me. It hindered me more than
helped, so I had to let her go.”
“That’s horrible! You’re just as bad as
JL. He killed his own daughter.”
He laughed, gloating; “He didn’t kill the
girl. I did. She was a horrible actress and couldn’t get the job done. Sure, JL
acted like he didn’t care to me, but like I said, he knew how to play the
game.”
“You’re a monster!”
“What are you going to do? Kill me?
Please. I know all about you, Vice Foreign Minister. You’ll stay here unless
you want to die as those pilots did.”
“What?”
“I’ve already disposed of the Gundam
pilots. They’re all dead.”
“Liar!”
“I don’t lie. They were all with my stupid
little cousin. It was quite easy.”
Relena’s head swirled. She looked around
for something to hold but instead found a gun. How did it get there? Oh well.
She held it at him, barely wavering. He kept laughing.
“Going to shoot me, are you?” He laughed
more.
She could not take it anymore; before she
knew it, she had squeezed the trigger. The bullet penetrated his skull, and
Nabil Winner fell to the floor, dead. Relena could not believe what had just
happened, what she had just done…what she had done. She could not help but look
at his body. The sight made her cry and scream at the same time.
She kept screaming, tears streaming down
her cheeks, as she woke up. She looked around the room. She was still his capture,
and he was still alive. Part of the nightmare had been in her sleeping mind,
but the other part was not; she was still a prisoner, miles from home.
Monday,
December 16 AC 198-12:15
Dear Cousin
Dora,
Yes, it is another letter. You are very close
to your prize. I can practically see you rolling your eyes at this letter. You
cannot tell, but during this one, I am smiling as I write it. I will give you a
bit of information that you may want to know. Call it a reward for getting thus
far and not giving up. My father and some person are after two girls, not one.
I played the dumb blonde for my father’s sake, but I do know their names:
Sylvia Noventa (is she a friend of yours?) and Dorothy Catalonia. Yes, you are
the other girl. I would write more, but I am being called to see Father. He
wants me to be there during some conversation with this mystery person. I love
you. Please forgive me.
Affectionately,
Melita Khushrenada
Dorothy sighed in frustration. Another
damn letter. When were they going to stop? She pocketed her latest one. She had
no more time for them at the moment. Tomorrow she had to play her role.
Tuesday,
December 17 AC 198
“Your cousin and a young lady are here to
see,” a secretary announced. Nabil let them come in to his office. It was nicer
than JL’s; it had pictures.
“I’m glad you finally came to see me,” he
greeted, standing up and shaking their hands. He was much better than James
was. “What brings you two here? To bargain with me? Make me see the truth and
peace?”
“You could say that,” Dorothy told him.
They took their seats.
“You’re wasting your time,” he informed
them.
“Why?” Quatre questioned, “Why are you
doing this? For your mother?”
“I’m doing it for you, too,” Nabil
revealed.
“How
do you say that? I don’t want any part of this,” Quatre let him know.
“My mother died to save us,” Nabil told
him.
~~Flashback~~
A woman lay on a bed with white sheets.
Both were covered in blood. She struggled to breathe.
“Nabil, son, go,” she instructed, “You
shouldn’t see your mother like this.”
“Mama,” the thirteen-year-old protested,
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Go!” she commanded. He stood there. She
was about to order him to leave her but instead slipped into unconsciousness.
The child watched her breathing for awhile longer.
“Nabil,” said his older cousin, Iria, his
mother’s doctor, as she entered the room, “there’s nothing either one of us can
do.” Her face was full of sympathy.
“What happened to her?” he asked, tears at
the edge of his eyes.
“She got a virus,” she explained, “I don’t
know how. I’m sorry, but she won’t make it through the rest of the week. You
better spend your time with her now.” He nodded, and she left him to give his
last few words to his beloved mother.
“Why won’t you tell me what happened?” he
asked her. She opened her eyes for small slits.
“To protect you children,” she answered,
“The public is slowly changing their views about our family. JL Khushrenada was
going to give us a position of power with the assistance of his brother-in-law,
General Catalonia.” She coughed and fought to regain her voice. “It would
ensure that they could not force any of you off a colony or into a bad business
deal. Your and your cousins’ futures would be secure.
“However, he needed money, more than he
and I both had, and he also needed resources from our satellites. Your uncles
and aunts would not lend me the money, the fools. Your uncle Alim kept a close
eye on the satellites. I couldn’t get a sample of a resource.” She coughed
again. “After a decade of being patient with me, James decided I was a
worthless ally.
“He wants me dead. He engineered a virus
and infected me with it at our last meeting. It’s slowly eating me away.
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your view, he got restless with the
virus working on its own, so he had two assassins come to kill me. They shot me
a few times, not in vital organs, but where I would bleed to death. My brother
Alim came to the door, and the assassins killed themselves. He begged me not to
tell any of you.”
“Why are you telling me now?” he asked. He
was satisfied that she was telling him, but a part of him did not want to know
that much.
“You need to stop James Lee Khushrenada.
Stop him. He uses people, and he discards them when he is done with them. It’s
a horrible thing to do.” He nodded. “Stop him.”
~~End
Flashback~~
“That doesn’t mean to manipulate him and
others!” Quatre demurred. Dorothy cursed her relatives for what they had done.
It was horrible in itself, and she had just gotten accepted by most of the
Earth Sphere.
“At first, I didn’t do anything about it,”
Nabil informed them, “But I met the man who engineered the virus. I got him to
make me many diseased, and I slowly injected him with each one, listening to
his screams. After awhile, it became easier. I found many people, who toyed
with others, so I offered them financial support. They’re my ‘pawns.’ I
perfected my different techniques and began only accepting the best of them,
which is how I acquired James. He didn’t remember me at first, but it idly
dawned on him. He said this was atonement for my mother.” He snorted. “Like
that could atone for it.
“I gave Khushrenada what he wanted, which
was what he had done to my mother, and then I killed him. I had Alex do it
since her parents killed mine for him. Yen used her friend’s little sister. I
won’t go into details, but she had the wife of your friend, Chang Wufei,
killed. Anyway, she got her just deserts as well.”
“You can’t just go around killing people
like that.”
“I already have.”
Dorothy sighed, “Obviously this is going
nowhere. Quatre, let’s just go back to the hotel, okay?”
“Fine by me,” he muttered. He looked at
her watch, which had a glowing 12 on it. It meant that everyone was in position
and their charade was done.
“Do come again,” Nabil invited with a
smile. He stood as they did and left.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-9:00 (Colony L-3C6445)
“That’s good,” Duo said to the video-phone,
“See you soon, babe. Keep care of Caitlyn for me. Yeah, yeah, I know you think
she’s yours, too, just because you carried her for nine months. I love you two.
Bye-bye.”
“I take it all the Maxwells are accounted
for?” Wufei asked, not looking at his partner but at the computer screen.
Duo grinned, “Yep, they are. Have you
talked to your daughter lately?”
“There’s a big time difference,” Wufei
explained, “There’s no good time to call.” He scrolled and typed.
“Have you found anymore plants?”
“None that are anywhere near operational,”
Wufei reported, “Winner’s cousin took most of them out when he detonated them
and killed Yen.”
Duo shrugged, “It makes our job a lot
easier.” Wufei put up the laptop. “So now what?”
“We wait for that signal,” Wufei said,
“and then we take care of the last remaining plants.”
“I hate waiting,” Duo complained.
“There’s no other choice unless you want
to deviate from the plan.”
“Since when are you such a team player?”
“Since I have a daughter that could
potentially be hurt by what I do or do not do.”
“That’s a good reason. Hey! Our kids could
grow up together,” Duo got excited.
“That’s what I always wanted,” Wufei said
in a mild tone, “I’m ecstatic.”
“So am I,” Duo said, either ignoring or
not noticing the sarcasm. They proceeded to leave their hotel room and scope
out the colony for what they would need to know for their newest mission…and to
get breakfast.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-11:30 (Colony L-4Y45263)
Catherine gazed out the window, “So that
building is Nabil’s?”
Sally nodded, “Yep, that’s it.”
“Where do you think the girls are?”
“They could be anywhere actually, but I
think they’re on the side facing us, third story, second window,” Sally pointed
to it.
Catherine blinked, “How do you know that?”
Sally chuckled, “I caught them looking out
yesterday as you were unpacking. We sent a few messages using Morse code with
flashlights.”
Catherine looked relieved, “That’s good.
How are they?”
“They say they’re fine, and I doubt that
I’ll have to do that much doctoring, but it’s better to be on the safe side.”
“Yes, it is. What do we do until the
signal comes? We already checked our entrances and exits yesterday. We don’t
have anything to do; we’re settled in here.”
“How about shopping?” Sally suggested.
“I love shopping!” exclaimed Catherine.
The pair of women grabbed their bags.
“I need a few more shoes,” Sally decided
as they headed for the door.”
“So
do I,” Catherine agreed, “And Trowa needs some more underwear.”
Sally tried and failed to resist falling
into a fit of giggles. For some reason it tickled her.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-12:15 (Colony L-1V0853)
Noin moved her pawn forward. Zechs
positioned his bishop two places ahead. Noin then moved her queen to the left.
Zechs smiled at his victory, as did Noin since he insisted on playing chess
until both of them had won a game. She had already won five games.
“Checkmate,” he declared.
“Where?” she asked, acting as if to search
the board like it was a surprise. He pointed it to it. “Oh. Good game.”
“Yes,” he agreed, packing it up. A chirp
came from the laptop. Noin checked it. “What is it? Is it the signal?”
“No,” she told him, “but my search is
finally done. There are only two labs: one on this colony and the other nearby.
I have a list of the diseases, viruses, and such in them.” She looked over the
list, perplexed.
“Is something wrong?”
“I’ve never heard of most of these. They
must be ones he masterminded himself.”
“What are their names?”
“There’s Muerte Negra, Carente, and
Plaga,” she read off, “They sound Spanish.”
“They are. They mean Black Death, Devoid,
and Plague.”
“Why would he use Spanish?”
“Who knows. It doesn’t matter. We just
need to get rid of them.”
“We’ll have to be extra cautious. A fire
could just spread them throughout the colony.”
“I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“Take them with us to Mars,” he said,
adding when he saw her face, “I meant that we can just jettison them out into
space while we return home.”
“That sounds good.”
He nodded, “We’ll just need safe carrying
cases.” At that, Noin dragged him around to shop for the safe bearing cases.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-14:55 (Colony L-5B4505)
“We’re finally alone,” Midii pointed out
with a mischievous grin. Trowa nodded.
“So we are.”
“We won’t be needed for a few days,” she
mentioned, alluding to “perhaps we can ‘catch up.’”
“I’d like that, but….”
“But? But what?”
“‘Catching up’ took a lot of time
yesterday, and we need to start planning our own part,” he told her, “I promise
we’ll catch up more later.” She seemed happier about that.
“So what are we going to do?” she asked,
getting a more professional, less personal air.
“We’re just to take care of the remaining
soldiers and any civilians,” he reminded her, “We already know that the
soldiers have retreated to this colony, so it should be easy to find them. As
for the civilians….” He drifted off.
“Why don’t we just hack into the
televisions at that point and get Catherine and Sally to put Relena up to a
camera, and we’ll simply relay her message to everyone,” she suggested. She put
on her jacket and lifted her hair out.
“That’s good,” he admitted, “We could just
get Amaya to give us an open port.”
“That, too.”
“We’ll survey the colony and look out for
their hideout and favorite hangouts.”
“I wonder if they eat lunch,” she pondered.
Trowa gave her a funny, questioning look. “It’s
He sighed in defeat as his own stomach
grumbled, “Fine, we’ll get lunch while we’re out.”
“Hey, we might see some soldiers while
we’re there,” she grinned, walking out with her arm around his.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-17:10 (Colony L-4Y45263)
Jet stretched her upper body. Heero
quietly finished his dinner, Chinese takeout.
“I think our mission’s the easiest,” she
told him, “I already got access to his files. When that signal comes, we can
easily get rid of them.”
“After we make copies.”
“Yes, of course after that.”
“And we’ll have to get into his personal
office.”
“Why?”
“He surely kept some on paper as well as a
few that aren’t accessible on a computer.”
She sighed, “Okay, it’s not so easy
anymore, but it can be done.”
“I can take Quatre’s cousin on my own.
After we delete all the files, leave with the other girls,” he instructed,
leaving a smidgen of room for argument.
“I can handle it,” she answered testily.
“But you don’t have to.”
“I’m going with you whether you like it or
not.”
“You’re so hard-headed.”
“So are you,” she retorted. They both
locked glares for a few intense moments. Eventually one blinked, and the other
looked away. Heero finished dinner and put the leftovers with Jet’s.
“I’m bored,” Jet declared.
“We could always….”
“We could always what?”
“You know what.”
She glowered, “I am not doing that right
now.”
“Please?” he was almost begging, and he
used that word. He had not done it in a long time. Finally she sighed in
failure, agreeing to do it. Heero left the room and returned with his laptop.
“This time make it hard,” he told her, his
voice returning to normal.
“I’ll try,” she said. Jet started to
create firewalls and computer viruses, linking with Heero for him to crush down
or eradicate.
Wednesday,
December 18 AC 198-21:50
It was a quiet evening on L-4M2834. The
young children were in bed. The older children were on the computer, watching
television, or doing homework. The working parents were heading to bed in order
to be rested up for another day of work the next day. The stay-at-home parents
were finishing household chores or watching television.
They had counted their blessings. Eleven
colonies had already been obliterated from space, just debris was left of them.
However, they were certain that they were from this harm. It happened everywhere
else, but it would never happen in a safe community such as theirs. In fact,
they were safe from everything. They had yet to be hit with a virus or a
similar thing.
Also, tomorrow held promise. Christmas was
quickly approaching, and there was much shopping to be done. The economy was
fairly good. The weather for the next day was cloudy with a small snowfall as
the schools were being let out. The high would 28 with the low at –12. It was
time for winter coats. Children were bundled up when they walked outside.
Seeing as their lives were as near perfect
as they knew to get, they did not see it coming. They did not know why some
colonies were infected and others were blown from the cosmos. If they had, they
may have been more appreciative in counting their blessings. Yet they may not
have done that. It had been many years since they had openly revolted against
the Winners, and most had forgotten about those days.
Unfortunately for them, one person did
remember this, and at almost
How
was this one? Let me know