Dorothy blinked, and slowly rolled over, hoping it was still dark outside, still early. The blonde groaned, she could see light peeking through the slats on the mini blinds, and realized that morning was already well underway. //... doesn't matter. I'm still not getting up.// Her head felt as if it had been stuffed with putty, and it was pretty much impossible to keep her eyes open for more than a few moments. The blonde groaned again, running a hand through her hair as she grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under her chin, trying not to think hard enough to wake herself up, and failing miserably. It had been a /long/ time since she had been involved with a project that was anything like the Valkyrie, going through the hours and hours involved in testing systems, making sure everything worked, The blonde had never been involved with something quite this complex and specialized, either. //... and we didn't do all the testing in /one day/ either.// It had been absolutely spectacular, flying even the test system, and Dorothy knew that as long as she was in that cockpit, taking orders and lining up shots, working with Relena, she could have done it forever. But as soon as she stopped, she just /stopped/, unable to do anything more than sleep for a very long time. //... but I see, it looks like I'm the only one having that problem.// A quick check with her foot, sliding her toes to the other side of the mattress told Dorothy she was alone in bed. She waited for some indeterminate amount of time, but there was no sign that Relena had only stepped out for a moment, that she would be returning any time soon. //Damn type-A, workaholic personalities.// Dorothy knew that, by most measures, she was at least as driven as the brunette was - //-but this is insane.// After a few, long moments of debate between herself and her warm, comfortable surroundings, Dorothy dragged herself out of bed and down the hall, finding Relena hard at work on a computer in the study. "Hello, Relena." Dorothy strolled up, reaching around to curl her arm under the girl's neck, resting her head on top of the long, slightly disheveled curtain of brown hair. Relena touched her arm briefly, but was engrossed in her work and said nothing. It took the blonde's brain a few more minutes to wake up, but as she stood there, Dorothy realized she was looking at a map of the Sank's border, with various tactical elements drawn out. Important elements. Current elements, some of which looked /very/ top secret. Relena clicked back and forth between screens, and Dorothy gaped, watching figures move, positions shift, the entire battle scenario playing out in front of her. "These are the war plans?" "This is the actual war data in real time, picked up by our satellites and transferred into a two-dimensional map for easy reference. Updated about every ten minutes or so." She tapped a finger against the screen. "See that? That's a Gundam - probably Duo's, seeing as how it's swerving around like a drunken exclamation point, even though nothing's happened yet." Relena frowned, eyes narrowing. "There's five of those, which mean's Heero's back." Dorothy waited for some kind of reaction from the brunette, but Relena didn't even blink twice. "... these are interesting battle strategies, a unique layout for the delegation of resources. Must be Noin's, Zechs is much more of a traditionalist, and these are too radical." "How did you get these?" Relena smiled, flipping through a few more documents with a spattering of keystrokes. "Executive privilege. I've got my own access to everything. security cameras, satellite footage... everything. No one knows about it either, only me and the tech guy that set it up." She grinned even more widely. "It comes in handy." "You little sneak." Dorothy rubbed the top of her lover's head, messing up her hair. After a few more moments, the blonde stifled a yawn, and felt Relena tense, knew she was doing the same. "We're still both exhausted. Come back to bed." "As if I'll get any sleep /there/." Relena murmured teasingly. "If I remember right, you weren't complaining." Dorothy shot back, and bent down to run her teeth along the upper curve of Relena's ear. "Mmm, ah." Relena leaned in to the blonde's touch, but her fingers kept tapping on the keys. "This is really important, Dorothy." "More important than me?" The blonde murmured. Relena turned to face her, almost laughing. "Do you really think a politician like me is going to answer a loaded question like that?" She gestured back to the screen. "Seriously, look at this." Dorothy studied the diagram silently, frowning as she noticed what she assumed Relena had been so worried about. "Who are they?" The blonde reached out one finger, tapping on the screen above a cluster of yellow shapes. Relena shook her head. "No idea. Noin's got everything set up well against everything else, they're doing all that they can." She looked at the sea of red and blue that occupied most of the screen. "But if those yellows aren't ours, we could have problems." "They can see this too, right?" "Noin and Zechs? Yes, of course." Dorothy wrapped her arms around Relena's stomach, tugging just slightly, coaxing her to stand. "Then come to bed, get some more rest. Lord knows I need it... and just how long have you been up by yourself, anyway?" Relena shrugged sheepishly. "Just a couple of hours, maybe. What time is it?" Dorothy sighed disgustedly, glad that the brunette finally got to her feet, followed her. She could sense Relena's tension, tried to do her best to put her mind at ease. "Don't worry. Everyone will do all they can. Until the enemy makes a move, all we can do is watch the Stalemate Channel and worry. When we're rested up, we'll go wait at Howard's, for something to happen, for our signal. As soon as those bastards attack, we can defend, but not /until/ then." She turned, looking Relena in the eye, sighing at the girl's somber mood. "I know you don't want anyone to get hurt, Relena. But this is the only way. Trust me, I know battles." That little, gleeful jibe perked up her lover's spirit. Relena rolled her eyes, following her a little less reluctantly. "You're hopeless, war-girl." "I know." Dorothy let her silk robe slip off her bare shoulders, fall gracefully to the ground as she stepped into bed. She sighed, stretching her arms above her head, smiling as Relena slipped an arm around her waist, snuggling close. "I was thinking... about other things too, while I was working." The brunette murmured sleepily. "About what?" "About us. About what will happen, when I have to go back and rule the kingdom again." Dorothy sighed. She had been expecting something like this, expecting it, fearing it, and preparing a response. No matter how much she wanted to ignore facts, it was obvious that Relena could not have a lover who was so obviously, at least to the rest of the world, a warmongering backstabber. The world stage would never allow it it, the blonde would never be able to love Relena in public, to show her affection in anything but back rooms, in certain, controlled circumstances. //You knew this whole kidnapping thing had a time limit when you did it. You knew.// Dorothy winced, stung by the knowledge that she couldn't help but undermine her pride, her honor, because she couldn't just walk away. //I don't care about my pride, or my honor. It - it's better to be her whore than anyone else's equal. I love Relena. I can't help it, and I know it sounds pathetic, but I guess I'll love her however I can.// "I don't want things to change." Relena murmured, giving her a little squeeze. "I don't want to ever let you go. I want you by my side forever." "Relena..." Dorothy was breathless with surprise, and something even happier, but she could not truly process anything at the moment, and knew, however much she didn't want to, that Relena might not understand what she was saying, that the brown-haired girl was too naive to realize the consequences of her choice. "Relena, the whole world knows about me. It would hurt your image. They'd never let you live it down. I'm not the kind of person fit for... someone like you." Relena shook her head, eyes closed, and yawned before speaking again. "I spent a long time, just trying to impress Heero. I told myself, that if I could change, if I could be stronger, smarter, less weak, he'd love me. I was wrong. It didn't matter, he - he'd never love me. I thought I had to change for him, but I didn't." She smiled. "/You/ don't either, you know. I don't want you to change for anyone, especially me. I love you, and I don't care if the rest of the world says I shouldn't. They can just... go to hell. Heero too, if he wants to. I don't care what they think, not at all." Dorothy lay still and quiet for a long moment, simply beaming with joy at her lover's words. She realized Relena had never had any other ideas, had no plans to push the blonde off to the side once she was back in command, to fixate only on her world image. //I should have known she wouldn't. It's not an image, that fairness, that respect. Relena cares for me, and in her mind, that automatically means she wouldn't hurt me, wouldn't be ashamed of me, no matter what anyone else in the world says.// Dorothy pulled Relena close to her, speaking even though she knew the other girl was already asleep. "I love you, Relena. So much, so much, and I keep underestimating you. I'm sorry. I just have to believe, I promise, I'll try to stop failing. I'll believe in you." After a moment, the brunette stirred slightly. "Dorothy, you say something?" "Nevermind, it wasn't important." "Love you." "Love you too." ----------------------------- "God /damn/ it." Trowa's eyes flicked up for a moment, to the group of suits surrounding him, just as he had destroyed the /last/ suit standing in the /first/ wave of attack. He was quickly running out of options, and he knew there were too many for him to fight alone. The enemy had attacked quickly and without warning, just as Noin had predicted, but even with that knowledge, the Gundam pilots had still barely held their own in the battle. Trowa didn't know where any of the other pilots were anymore, only that he was most definitely on his own now, no one /could/ come to his aid. //At least Quatre is safe... I hope.// The brown-haired pilot looked up at a few words, glowing red above a small sensor screen, showing that all the enemy suits had locked missiles on his position, and were preparing to fire. In another time, another point in his life, he would have pushed the self-destruct button without a second thought. Now he knew there were people who depended on him, who needed him, who loved him, and he could no longer be so careless with his own life. //Catherine, and Quatre. Shit, blondie, I /told/ you I'd be all right. I told you not to worry.// No matter what happened, he had to keep his promises. Trowa was able to evade most of the first round of missiles without much of a problem, taking only minor damage to the suit's left arm. He quickly retaliated, sending a line of fire across the battlefield in front of him, watching three suits crash to the ground, exploding even before they hit the earth. //Too slow, still too slow. I can't get rid of them fast enough.// Two of the remaining suits rushed him, showing a lot more bravado than any OZ fighter he had ever faced. These men were very ready to die, in order to protect their honor, and show the pride of their country. //Dangerous, very dangerous.// Trowa waited until they were in range to fire, and managed to take down one, but the last fighter evaded his bullets, landing a wicked blow to his left shoulder. Trowa could hear the sound of metal crashing against metal as the Heavyarms twisted underneath him, and realized only a second too late that the man had been merely a decoy, someone to keep him occupied while the third division surrounded him, and prepared to fire. //Shit!// Trowa heard an alarm system going haywire just above his right ear, knew he only had a few seconds left to live. //I knew it had to end, eventually.// The brown-haired pilot calmly let go of the controls, closed his eyes, and tried to hold a picture in his mind, of those closest to him, all his friends. Catherine, and everyone at the circus. Stupid Duo and his silent opposite, the dedicated, steel-eyed Heero, stoic Wufei... and Quatre. His Quatre.// //Damn, blondie, I'm going to miss you.// "Trowa!!!!" The brunette's eyes snapped open seconds before the blast hit, and everything vanished in a curtain of bright white and a rolling wave of thunder. The world started coming back in fragments, and Trowa shook his head hard, reaching out for the controls, unsure of why he was still alive. He got his answer when he looked up, and saw the Sandrock standing in front of him, crescent blades drawn. The other Gundam had blocked every missile. "Quatre? You shouldn't be here!" "That... makes t-two of us." Trowa could hear the pain in the other boy's voice, knew that Quatre's arm had still needed a long time to heal, that he was probably in agony. For all of the blonde boy's seeming frailty, though, Trowa also knew there was nothing he wouldn't do to help those he cared for. //Like he said, that makes two of us.// Trowa thought with fierce protectiveness as he slowly rose to his feet, throwing off the remnants of the other suit, surveying the battlefield. Before either pilot could act, another alarm sounded, and Trowa looked down to see a large group of tiny dots on his radar, a whole fleet of suits, slowly moving towards their position. Those suits, assumed to be the enemy, were a group Noin had been able to tell them little about. They had been discounted early on, mainly because they had not immediately launched into battle when the rest of the army had. //Well, they're moving /now/.// Trowa thought angrily, realizing there were now /definitely/ too many enemy suits to fight. He could hear Quatre, breathing just a little too quickly, and his slight chuckle was tense and tight. "Wufei did say this was a good day to die." The blonde murmured. A sudden burst of static interrupted Trowa's response. "Gundam pilots, can you read me?!" The transmission was coming from the lead member of the oncoming ships. Trowa blinked, wondered why the enemy was bothering to announce itself. "... this is Trowa Barton. What do you want?" The voice on the other end was cheerful, and surprisingly friendly. "This is Tyse Derrick, leader of the rebellion forces. We were wondering if you could use a little assistance?" "So /that's/ why they stopped attacking." Trowa heard Quatre murmur, and realized that their enemy, the third wave of attack, was now quickly turning tail, fleeing the advance of the large battalion of rebel ships. "We're not much of a force compared to you Gundams, but we'd gladly be your escort back to the front lines, sir." "You talk to them, Quatre." Trowa smiled as the two pilots started talking, and had to turn off his com link for a moment, to laugh in disbelief. //From being dead one minute, to having an entire /escort/ of Aires suits the next? God, I love being a pilot.// ----------------------------- "What's the situation, Howard?" Dorothy crossed her arms, staring down at the computer terminals. It had only been an hour or so since the pink-shirted scientist had called them, casually mentioning that if the Valkyrie was to have a test drive, there was no better time than now. The mild suggestion was what the blonde had been expecting from the scientist. Howard was rarely anything but mellow, even when a war was going on. //Which it is.// "I'll tell you this much, that Noin of yours sure can command." Howard tapped the screen, under which a series of dots of all colors moved in, for the most part, tight formations. "This battle would have been long over under a lot of other people's leadership, I can tell you that much." "So, where do we go in?" Dorothy turned as Relena entered, suited up and ready to go. Their suits were identical, except that Dorothy's was mainly black with white trim, and Relena's was opposite, dark lines and shoulder guards accentuating her figure. For a moment, all Dorothy could do was stare. "You look magnificent, Relena." Even Howard was having a hard time thinking of something to say, and when both girls finally noticed his gaze, he slapped a hand behind his head, grinning sheepishly. "What do you girls want from me? /Complete/ scientific impartiality? I used to be quite the swinger in my day." Relena and Dorothy were both giggling, eventually getting themselves under control, watching the war play out over the large computer screen. "I think you two should drop in right about... there." Howard pointed to a small gap, in between the two lines. "Right in the middle." Relena murmured, and saw Dorothy's face light up in joy. The blonde beamed like the world's naughtiest child. "Let's do it." --------------------------------- The Valkyrie had been moved to an open field for her first takeoff, and Dorothy and Relena quickly made their way through the throng of scientists and engineers, who all were waiting to see their creation's debut. //Yeah, they're all here for the ship.// Relena thought wryly, noticing how many pairs of eyes were latched onto either her or Dorothy's skin-tight flight suit. About halfway down the corridor of people, Relena stopped. "Are you all /quite/ satisfied, then?" She shouted, making an attempt at her best model's pose. A thousand cheers and wolf-whistles followed her all the way to the Valkyrie. "Boys." Dorothy laughed. "Yeah. Boys." Relena responded, giving the scientists one last wave as she put her hand on the temporary scaffold that led up to the cockpit. "She shouldn't give you any problems, she's a damn fine ship." Howard murmured, eyes unusually serious behind his thin sunglasses. "Just be careful." "No problems, Howard. Don't worry, and thank you." Relena hugged him briefly, and climbed up the scaffold, seating herself in the front, Dorothy already strapped in behind her. "You scared?" Dorothy murmured. Impulsively, Relena leaned over the back of her seat, and kissed the blonde. //For luck.// "Not as long as you're with me, Dorothy." Relena slid back down into the front seat, strapping on her helmet, wrapping her hands around the controls. It was amazing how much difference there was between the actual system and what they had been using to train on. The helmet felt weightless on her head, and the controls felt like simple extensions of her own body, as if she had finally returned to where she belonged. It was amazing, and exhilarating, and nothing had actually /happened/ yet. There was the tiniest clank, far below, and Relena looked down through one of the aft cameras, to see that someone had broken a bottle of Guinness Stout over the back of the Valkyrie's leg, as if they were sending a ship off to sea. "Funny, Howard." She murmured, as she heard the static crackle in her headset, of someone picking up communications on the ground. "Well, we're nothing if not traditionalists." The scientist responded. "So, you think you can do this?" "Oh /yeah/." Relena felt a surge of excitement pour into her system. "You ready, Dorothy?" A sly chuckle was her only response, and with one swift motion, Relena gunned the engines, and sent the Valkyrie soaring skyward. ------------------------------- "How's it looking, Zechs?" The Sank kingdom's temporary leader was happy to hear Noin's voice, even if he didn't have much good news to tell her. He had been worried ever since the battle began, not knowing what kind of suit she was flying, or even where she was. Noin had been darting around on the battlefield, assuming control wherever she was needed and generally kicking ass wherever possible. Zechs wondered how there had ever been a time he thought he could have lived without her. "Yo, Zechs. You gonna answer me, or are you going to sit and brood for the rest of the war?" He smiled at her slightly annoyed tone. "Everything's looking pretty much as expected, Noin." Zechs surveyed what he could see of the main battlefield, watching three of the five Gundams cut a wide path of destruction through the enemy's lines. He was surprised Wufei had stayed in the battle this long, that he hadn't found something more interesting or important to occupy his time. The dark-haired pilot had somehow developed a strategy with Heero, and the two of them were slowly corralling a large group of the enemy's suits, never letting them stray from a slowly shrinking circle, making it that much easier to attack them. Duo, in the meantime, was simply shooting anything that came near him, doing quite a stellar job with his random assault. //Not enough. Still not enough.// "The Gundams are all doing fine, and I'm just about to join the eastern line. We repelled the attack off the western edge, but there's more of them coming. A lot more." "At least we don't have to worry about that little group, you know, the ones we couldn't figure out whose side they were on..." Noin sounded almost cheerful. "They're rebels, they're on our side, and leading Quatre and Trowa back this way to join in on the main attack." "Quatre?!" She laughed at him. "Come on Zechs, did you really think he'd stay out of this fight?" An electronic squeak cut over the radio as Noin cut off, leaving Zechs alone with his thoughts. //No, I /didn't/ expect him to stop fighting. We're pilots, that's what we do.// That was what he was doing, wasn't it? Even though somewhere, out there, Relena was in trouble, completely at Dorothy's mercy... he was /fighting./ //I don't have a choice. My sister, I promise I'll save you, once this day is won.// Charging up his primary weapons systems, Zechs leapt into battle. ------------------------------ "It's such a beautiful day." Duo sighed as the Deathscythe cut another suit in half, and turned to fire several rounds into the closest line of assault. "I wish I wasn't here right now." //I wish I wasn't too busy to turn off my communications.// Heero thought, locked in hand-to-hand combat with another suit. Wufei groaned as Duo started musing. He had heard that tone in the braid-wearing pilot's voice too many times before. "You know where I'd be?" Duo kept talking, as the Deathscythe found its hold in another suit, and another, and another, the pilot mowing down his enemies left and right. "I'd be held hostage, yeah. By a cadre of the universe's most wealthy and beautiful women... being used as their sex toy." Heero wished, as he usually did, that he had a clear shot of Deathscythe, and one spare second to open fire. He wouldn't even bother to pretend that it was an accident, and he figured no one who knew Duo could blame him for it. "Forced to pleasure them over and over at any time of the night or day. Having to give in to their ever increasing appetite for kinky, sexual thrills and-" "Duo?" Heero and Wufei growled in unison, both unable to believe this conversation was taking place in the middle of a battlefield. "Eh?" "Shut up." Duo rolled his eyes, flipping off his communication link before driving the end of his scythe through another suit. "You're just jealous cuz you didn't get to watch Dorothy and Relena get it on." He muttered grumpily, --------------------------- "Hey guys... mind if we join in?" Heero watched the enemy draw back, suits pulling away like a wave from the shore as Trowa, Quatre and about twenty new suits approached their position. "How are you holding up?" Heero murmured. The Sandrock looked fine, but he knew Quatre wasn't. The blonde responded quickly, but his voice sounded strained, and tired. "I'm all right, Heero. I'd just like to gain some stable ground here." "There's got to be a weak spot in this army, somewhere." Wufei suggested. Another crackle of static, as someone else cut in. "This is Tyse, the rebellion leader. I couldn't help but overhear. The only way to win this war is to knock out their front line - the suits with the gold stripes on the left arms? They're the country's best, and we'll spook them all to hell if we can kick the bastards out of commission." "The golden stripes?" Duo looked out over the battlefield, where the enemy was already regrouping, about to try another assault. "There's got to be, like, a thousand of them!" "Do we have a choice?" ------------------------------ High above them, something caught Wufei's eye, and a light on one of his radar panels began blinking, just a little, as if asking him to take a look when he had a spare moment. "What the-?" The dark-haired pilot zoomed in with an onboard camera as the object started to descend, and heard the com link click on again just as he got a clear view. "Hold it, hold it! What the /HELL/ is that thing?!" Duo spoke for all of them, and for several seconds no one else could think of what to say. Wufei realized that the enemy lines had frozen too, everyone was watching the skies. "It's..." Trowa's uncertain voice broke the silence. "It - is that a /Gundam/?! ----------------------------- "I think we're in the spotlight, Relena." Relena sighed, just a little disappointed. She hadn't wanted to swoop down like a prima donna, didn't believe Howard's claim that such an entrance would help her to quickly stop the battle. After a few seconds of surprise, she was sure the war would continue as if nothing had happened, and all her new position would offer was the chance to be the largest target in the middle of the battlefield. "It looks like we have a chance for a sneak attack, so to speak." Relena murmured, staring down at the enemy forces, who, so far, hadn't sent up any fire to greet them. "They don't seem to be doing anything." "Are you sure you don't want to talk to them first?" Relena laughed in disbelief, knowing Dorothy wasn't serious. "Do you honestly think that would work? Besides, it's not like we're going to hurt anyone." "Of course not, Relena. This is just a war." Relena smiled, increased the angle of the dive slightly, dropping faster towards the ground. "When I pull up-" Dorothy cut her off. "Just do it, Relena. I know what to do. I'm ready." Relena turned sharply, and flicked a switch, pulling the massive wing nearly flat against Valkyrie's body, dropping like a stone straight into the enemy's front line.
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