Duo Maxwell puffed out a breath, the boy dressed in priest's
garb looking between the tall girl and the other young man's
body. "Thanks," he finally muttered to her softly, "you may have
saved my life." Duo knelt down, reaching out to shut Heero's
sightless eyes before pulling her to her feet. "You'd better get out
of here, Miss."
"Arisugawa," the orange haired girl shot back, looking down
at Heero's body, "he was fighting against OZ too. We didn't even
need to be fighting."
"Fighting OZ," the Duo murmured as out in the bay two robots
began to rise, one black and the other gleaming white. "Duo
Maxwell," he introduced himself as he gave her a push forward. "You
have to get out of here before the army or police arrive," he said
urgently.
"Right," Arisugawa visibly marshaled her self control as the
woman walked away from Duo towards her motorbike. She climbed
aboard, pulled the black helmet on, and Duo just stood there,
watching her thoughtfully.
Duo smiled grimly as he murmured, "I'll be seeing you,
Arisugawa."
Arisugawa wheeled the bike about and was gone in a squeal of
tires into the night. Duo noted with some admiration that she chose
to make her way overland, bumping roughly over the stone and uneven
ground, but also keeping well away from the major roads that the
armed forces would be using to get out to the base.
"Well, back to work," Duo leapt down, smiling in
satisfaction as his Gundam emerged from the waters, carrying the
white Gundam that he had found on the ocean floor hours before. His
original intention was simply to keep it for spare parts, but now...
A chopper whizzed by overhead, jerking him away from his
thoughts. He moved out of the pool of light, keeping to the deep
shadows as his remote controlled Mobile suit returned to the depths
with a flick of a switch. He slid the remote away with a frown,
wishing the effort of hauling them up hadn't been wasted, but he
couldn't risk them being spotted.
The jeep was not far from the base, right where he had
hidden it earlier, and Duo made it there easily. 'The regular army,'
he thought to himself wryly, 'what a joke.' His smile faded as he
continued, 'Now if it was OZ troopers out there, I might just be in
trouble.'
Duo grabbed the uniform that he had stashed in the back
seat, changing clothes quickly. Where a boy in priest's clothes had
once been a Major in the Specials now sat, insignia gleaming and
uniform crisp. He started up the jeep, pausing just a moment to pull
on the matching cap, then he was gone, driving off into the night
whistling a merry tune.
He passed by two checkpoints while he was getting off the
station, his set of false papers and borrowed uniform carrying him
past them easily. Still, Duo made sure to use evasion techniques to
keep anyone from trying to tail him, finally dumping and then
destroying both the jeep and uniform before moving on to his safe
house.
Duo had his gun in hand, unlocking the door and carefully
moving inside. He searched each room, scanning for any signs that
someone else had been inside there. Finally he slid the gun away,
moving over to a small personal computer.
The first thing he checked was for any new missions from his
superiors, but there was nothing posted yet. "Well," Duo
smiled, "lets take a look into our Miss Arisugawa." The search
engine was first, and he frowned intently, sorting through the
photos and articles. He found out that her first name, Juri, and
with a bit of looking found that she was attending a major academy
nearby. But Duo really reacted when he found the report about the
fire at Ohtori.
"Colony terrorists?" Duo snorted in amusement, "yeah, right."
Duo raised an eyebrow at the accusations that Juri had made
about the Specials, her claim that a group of OZ soldiers had really
been the ones to cause the fire at Ohtori. It had all been hushed up
pretty quickly, of course, but it must have been worrying to the
leaders of OZ. She hadn't been shut up, instead they had discredited
her using her relationship with another female student.
"Well, I guess she meant it when she talked about fighting
against OZ," Duo said to himself thoughtfully. He leaned back in his
chair and looked up at the roof as he murmured, "But what do I want
to do about it?"
In another part of the world, a irritating chime roused an
older woman from her sleep. Short black hair stood up messily, but
she seemed to awaken almost instantly, looking around her calmly.
She reached out to hit the activation switch for a nearby
communicator and coldly said, "Whoever this is, it had better be
good."
"Noin," the silver helmeted figure appearing on the screen
smiled at her slightly, "I'm sorry to disturb you so early."
"Zechs," Noin smiled back wryly, "I should have known." She
sat up, running a hand through her hair to straighten it
out, "What's the situation?"
"We're inbound to your position, ETA two hours," Zechs
calmly explained, "there's some very important matters for us to
discuss."
"I'll be ready," Noin answered, and he signed off without
another word. 'What in the world does Zechs want with me now?' she
wondered as she almost jumped up out of bed. 'I told him that it was
over, the last time we met,' she thought grimly.
Noin stripped off her night clothes, stepping into the small
shower for a few moments of hot water, then she switched it over to
ice cold. A muffled scream later, and she was feeling much more
awake. She dried off, dressed herself quickly in her dark blue
uniform of the Specials, and after making sure she was presentable
she was gone. Only a few minutes later she was up in the base's
tactical room asking for a situation update from the very startled
looking staff there.
A few moments of studying the military data coming in from
the other bases, and Noin knew that there was only one real military
problem: the Gundams. Four Mobile Suits from the colonies, each one
of them different in design and capabilities. But they all had one
thing in common: they were all striking against the OZ controlled
bases. One was downed by Zechs himself, but no one else seemed to be
able to stand against them.
'Does Zechs think the Gundams are going to attack this
training center?' Noin thought to herself grimly. 'Or is there
something else here that he needs?' She shook her head and sighed,
she had broken up with Zechs because she didn't understand him, why
should this be any different. "It's going to be a long two hour
wait," Noin muttered.
"Ma'am?" one of the techs looked at her in confusion.
"Never mind," Noin turned, leaving the room.
The mobile suit transport plane landed right on time, Noin
and a few of the other high-ranking officers of the base waiting for
them to disembark. As Zechs climbed down, the scarlet clad ace of
the Specials, Noin felt a pang of regret. But they weren't going
anywhere, and she would not let herself be used, even by such a man.
Zechs offered respectful salutes to the officers, then
nodded to Noin. "I need to speak with you privately," he said to her
crisply.
The other officers, as well as Zechs' lieutenant all moved
away. "Zechs," Noin actually found herself feeling irritable, "this
had better not have been a personal visit. It's over."
"I know," there was an odd sound of regret in Zechs
voice, "I'm here under orders from Treise himself." He took an
envelope from his pocket, passing it over with a simple, "Here."
Noin turned the envelope over in her hands, looking
curiously at the wax seal marked with a rose emblem. She popped the
seal, and a stiff card as well as something heavy dropped into her
hands. The rose seal glinted in the light of the dawn, and the card
bore elegant script, "You have been chosen to become a duelist."
Just below that, oddly, was the phrase, "End of the world."
"What in the world?" Noin looked up at Zechs in surprise.
"It seems that you've been chosen, too," Zechs said to her
quietly, "chosen to be a major player in the coming drama."
"Too?" Noin narrowed her eyes in thought, remembering seeing
the rose signet that Zechs also wore. "What is this all about?" she
asked.
"The chance to achieve all our ambitions," Zechs smiled
slightly, "the chance to hold miracles in our hand. One could even
revolutionize the world." He paused, "but only if you choose to
accept it."
Noin looked up at him, then down at the ring on her palm.
She took the rose signet in her hand, then with a simple motion slid
it on her finger. "What do we do now?"
"Your new orders," Zechs handed papers over to her, "you are
being reassigned to the mobile suit divisions at your own
discretion."
"That means I can go almost anywhere, do anything," Noin
murmured, looking through the papers to confirm it. "Am I to go
after the Gundams?"
"The Gundams are a part of this," Zechs said
thoughtfully, "but not the only part. There are still players
waiting to be revealed."
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