War And Peace
Chapter 13
Zechs groaned softly as Noin shook him awake, "We're here Zechs." He straightened up and took in the new surroundings. Treize had contacted him only hours before, requesting his presence at his current base. Curious as to what his commanding officer wanted him for, Zechs had readily agreed. He stood up and stretched, wishing he could reach beneath his mask and wipe the sleep from his eyes. "Unload the Tallgeese," he ordered the soldier nearest to him and walked out into the open air. The sunlight hurt his eyes and it took him a few minutes to adjust. He immediately noticed that Treize's personal jet was missing from the airport and questioned where he could be. Zechs sighed impatiently when he was informed that Treize was on his way and wouldn't arrive for a few hours. He turned as he felt a hand brush against his arm, "We'll wait for him in his office." He nodded in acquiesce to Noin's suggestion and asked one of the base's soldiers to take them to Treize's office. "Inform me the moment he arrives," he ordered the soldier as they approached the office. Zechs was surprised by the simplicity of the office he was led into; he had thought that Treize, being a man who enjoyed the beauty in things, would have had his office decorated and furnished accordingly. This office, while equipped with the finest, was plain and lacked Treize's trademark for flamboyance and style. Zechs collapsed in one of the plush chairs that furnished the office and watched as Noin sat in one across from him. "How is it that you can look so refreshed and I can look and feel so tired when we both had the same amount of sleep," he asked curiously, hating the feeling of tiredness and weakness that had plagued him since piloting the Tallgeese. He watched as a slow smile brightened her features, "It's because I didn't pilot a powerful new suit without first testing it." Zechs chuckled softly as he studied her thoughtfully from behind his mask; could she have piloted the Tallgeese as well as he had, he wondered wistfully and decided that while she had the same skills he had, her heart simply wasn't in it. He glanced at his watch as silence filled the room and wondered what the hell was keeping Treize. Deciding that they both needed relief from the silence and the boredom, Zechs stood up and walked to the desk.
Noin watched, curiously, as Zechs made his way toward the huge desk that was seated in the middle of the office. "This desk is pretty big isn't it Noin," he asked softly and she answered him cautiously as she tried to figure out what it was that he was trying to do. "Yes, it is a big desk. Why do you ask," she questioned politely, figuring that he was only trying to make small talk. He was silent and, for a second, Noin thought that perhaps he hadn't heard her. As she began to repeat her question he motioned for her to come to him. Noin started to remain in her seat but her curiosity got the better of her and she stood up and approached him. "What do you want Zechs," she asked softly, unprepared for his next actions. "You," he answered quickly and she gasped as his arms wound themselves around her waist, trapping her arms in her long cape, as he pinned her back against the desk. "Zechs, what the hell," her sentence was broken off as his lips claimed hers. Noin struggled to catch her breath when he pulled away but was distracted by the now roaming hands that were quickly unbuttoning her uniform. "Zechs stop! What if someone walks in," she hissed through clenched teeth as she struggled to free herself from the confinement of her cape. Noin blew her hair out of her eyes and looked at him, shocked by the bright smile on his face. She laughed as he buried his face against her neck and began kissing her gently. "Zechs, what has gotten into you today," she asked as she pushed him away. His voice was deep and full of raw sex appeal as he answered her, "Nothing Noin, I just decided that we both needed the distraction." She watched as he tipped back the mask and she leaned forward for the kiss she knew he was about to give her. She stopped and drew back, startled, as the telephone rang. She reached over and picked it up cautiously, "Lt. Noin speaking." Noin was surprised to hear the rich baritone of Treize's voice over the line as he informed her that they had arrived and were on their way. "They're here," she said softly and watched as Zechs replaced the silver mask and walked over to the other side of the desk. She followed and stood beside him, waiting for Treize's arrival.
Zechs watched the door patiently and greeted Treize as he entered the room, noting, with distaste, that Lady Une accompanied him. "Welcome Your Excellency," he said politely, not bothering to greet Lady Une. "Great job Zechs," was his reply and Zechs humbly accepted his due praise; one thing that sat Treize apart from the other commanders was that he complemented his soldiers on their performance regularly. He glanced at Noin as she received her due praise, and then at Lady Une. He noticed that her normally cold features were tight with anger or indignation, he couldn't tell. Zechs studied his old friend as he informed them that he had put her in charge of their current operation. He met her cold gaze as she informed him that Noin and he were to come with her. Zechs tried to stop the smile that tugged at his lips when Treize informed her that he needed to talk with him, but failed and watched as anger flared in her eyes. His smile disappeared when he heard the cold tone she used with Noin and he glared at the lady colonel as she left the room. "Still don't care for her Zechs," he heard his friend ask softly as the door slammed shut. Zechs was silent; Treize already knew the answer to that question. He couldn't help but frown as Treize began to tease him as to what name he would like to be called and asked what his future plans entailed. Lightning Count or Lightning Baron, in the end it didn't matter. He should just be frank and tell his friend to call him "a killer of his own men". Zechs sighed and faced Treize, looking down at his commander as he took a seat at the desk, the desk that only minutes ago he'd had Noin pinned against. He almost smiled at that memory but stopped himself and gruffly told Treize that he wished to stay with Oz a little while longer. He could tell his answer pleased Treize and his mood softened. Like him, Treize had few friends with whom he could truly be himself and Zechs knew that his commander dreaded the day when he would depart from Oz. "If I leave now, they will call me call me a killer… and besides I still have business to take care of," he stated calmly, knowing that Treize knew what he was referring to. Zechs chuckled softly when Treize informed him that he had his permission to do whatever he wanted with the gundams but his mood darkened considerably when he was asked why he still wore his mask. No matter how many times he had tried to explain the necessity of the mask to Treize he still didn't understand. "I'm still trying to achieve my personal revenge. Please try to understand that I must continue to wear this mask until then," he said curtly as he made his way toward the door. He kept his back turned and kept walking as Treize sighed and told him that he understood. He stopped short of the door as the sound of his given name echoed throughout the huge office. "Your Excellency please," he protested and turned to face him. He watched as his commander stood, "I am very much looking forward to the day you remove that mask of yours." Zechs closed his eyes and nodded, "Yes sir," as he exited the room.
Noin shifted her weight form one foot to the other as she stood listening to details of "the" plan to get rid of the gundams. It really was a good plan if one thought about it and would have been one hundred percent fool proof if were to be used against a troop of any of the current mobile suit models. Noin knew, all to well, the extraordinary power of the gundams and, although she was aware that Lady Une had faced one, wondered if perhaps they were being too hasty in their decision to confront the gundams. As she listened to the lady colonel talk on the importance of intelligence in a war, she wondered what was keeping him. Surely his Excellency didn't have that much to discuss with him unless… unless he had found out about them. Noin could feel her face flush at the thought of him knowing and found herself grateful for the darkened room. She refocused her attention as she heard Lady Une say something about Lake Victoria. Noin could feel herself getting angrier and angrier as Lady Une spoke of the faulty facilities at her base. She clenched her fists tight and jumped slightly when she felt a hand on her arm. "Noin ignore her," she heard a low voice whisper and immediately knew that it was Zechs. "What did his Excellency want," she asked hesitantly. "I'll tell you later," he said softly as he stood by her side.
Zechs glanced up and frowned at the manner in which Lady Une had chosen to deliver their plan. She was on a crane, so high up in the air that it forced everyone below to crane his or her neck in order to see her. He had missed most of the meeting by the looks of it and hoped that Noin would have time to fill him in. He started to turn and ask her what he had missed but stopped, surprised, when Lady Une began to speak on the proper way to defeat the different gundams. It was on the tip of his tongue to inform the soldiers of the real risks they were about to face and enlighten them as to the fact that the lady colonel, herself, had tried to defeat a gundam and failed. He, instead, stood silent watching the screen curiously as it displayed the various weapons that equipped the different gundams and their unique designs. The gundams were truly incredible pieces of machinery, he thought as he studied their designs. What he wouldn't give to be able to pilot one of them. Zechs glanced up in annoyance when a sharp voice interrupted his thoughts. "Now Colonel Zechs I was hoping that you could be in charge of shooting down the 01 with your Tallgeese alone. What do you think," he heard the harsh voice of Treize's personal aide call down from her platform as she moved towards him. He started to reply but was cut off by Noin as she argued that it was suicidal to expect him to face the gundam alone. He was touched and a little worried when she offered to go with him and, for once, Zechs was grateful for Lady Une's interference. "I'm appointing you to the headquarters. You'll be assisting me. Do you have any problems with that," she replied contemptuously and Zechs was glad that she had not asked him to answer her last question. He listened as Lady Une explained that since he had been disgraced so many times by the gundam that she had felt that he might enjoy the chance to pay it back. He looked over in surprise at Noin's reply. "How convenient, if he loses it all becomes Zechs' fault." Zechs looked down at her sharply, "Noin it's all right. Actually I would prefer it if you stayed at headquarters. When we meet the enemy we'll need quick and accurate information. I'll need your support there." He watched her head drop, relieved when she agreed. He hated it when she risked her life in battle and knowing that she was safe at headquarters would put his mind at ease while he fought the gundam. He quietly left the room and her as Lady Une ordered the operation to begin. Zechs looked back at his lieutenant one last time before leaving to ready his suit. He hoped that this time he would be able to control the Tallgeese and destroy the gundam.
Noin grit her teeth as she followed Lady Une down the long corridors of the headquarters. She'd had enough of the lady's cheap insults and was struggling not to loose her temper. She had to assist Zechs and that was far more important than putting Une in her place. Noin couldn't understand what made the woman so cruel but figured that it had something to with Treize. Most of the lady colonel's problems seemed to stem from her relationship or lack thereof with Treize. She knew that there was nothing physical between them, she had learned inasmuch from Zechs, but she wondered if perhaps she was in love with him. If it had been anyone other than Lady Une she would have asked but something told her that Une didn't care for her and so the question remained unasked. Noin glanced up when she heard Lady Une clear her throat and met the cold brown eyes that stared back at her. "Ma'am," she questioned hesitantly, a little smile tugged at the corner of her lips when she realized that she was a bit taller than the lady colonel. "This is no time for your daydreaming. Perhaps if you had been awake at Lake Victoria you would not have been beaten so badly by a mere child," Lady Une said coldly as she punched in the elevator's access code. Tired of putting up with her comments about the incident at Victoria, Noin lost her temper. "The same "mere" child who beat you and nearly took his Excellency's life," she said softly as the elevator door shut. She waited for the smart comment that she knew had to be on the tip of Une's tongue. The lady's reply was spoken so softly that Noin had to strain to hear it; "Point taken Lt. Noin." Noin was stunned and the rest of the elevator ride was made in silence. She almost rolled her eyes as the door opened revealing the control room and Lady Une began shouting orders. Taking the only seat available at the round table, Noin sighed and readied herself to assist Zechs.
Zechs took another deep breath as he strapped himself into the Tallgeese's cockpit. His heart was racing as memories of the last time he had been inside the suit filled his mind. Sadly he looked around at the last images Otto had seen before he had crashed into the base. Zechs ran his hands over the controls, noticing spots of blood that his crew had missed when they had cleaned his suit out. Fitting, he sneered, that I should literally stain my hands with the blood of those my selfishness has slain. He turned on the suit's speakers and connected with the control room of the base. He activated the huge engines and gritted his teeth as the cockpit shook with the power of the suit as it lifted into in the air. Zechs let out the breath he had been holding as the Tallgeese leveled out and the shaking ceased. "Noin I'm ready. Where is 01," he asked softly hoping that she was the only one who could hear him. If there was a time that he had ever needed her support it was now. "Zechs," she answered warmly, "01 is at this moment attacking the supply base." He gripped the controls and directed the Tallgeese toward the supply base, surprised with the ease in which the suit now moved through the air. He scanned his radar and infrared sensor for the gundam and felt his heartbeat quicken as his equipment picked up his enemy. Zechs could almost picture the confusion on the young pilots face as he approached him. He increased the suit's power as he neared the same gundam whom he had thrown into the ocean. Zechs saw the beam cannon seconds before it was fired and swerved the Tallgeese away. He almost laughed as the pilots voice came over his speakers, "He's good." Landing his suit a few yards from where the gundam stood, Zechs called out to the young pilot and challenged him to a duel. He nodded in approval when the gundam produced a beam laser and drew his as well. As he parried the gundams laser beam his confidence grew and Zechs spoke cockily, letting some of the arrogance he was so well known for, seep through. As they fought Zechs viewed the information that scrolled down one of the screens. The gundams had managed to destroy the huge army of mobile suits that Lady Une had dispatched. If he hadn't had been so preoccupied with his duel he might have taken the time to laugh at the lady colonel's horrible luck; there was no doubt that Treize was going to be displeased with her. Making sure that she wasn't going to attempt anything rash, he quickly switched the frequency of his speakers and listened as Lady Une raged about the impossibility that her plan had failed. He was shocked when she ordered one of the technicians to connect her to Fortress Barge and stopped his duel with the gundam when he heard her counter plan. For a second he thought that she was bluffing and was about to give her credit for being a good liar but paled when he saw on his screen that she wasn't. "What kind of dirty trick is this," he spat out angrily, "can't she fight honorably; at this rate I can't do anything either." Thoroughly disgusted he ordered Noin to connect him to Lady Une.
Noin patched Zechs' call through and watched in wonder as he and Lady Une argued. Zechs was right, of course, about the fact that his Excellency was going to be displeased and Noin stood up when she saw that Lady Une was about to cut her connection with him. She knew that someone had to stop Une from completing her plan and knew that if anyone was going to attempt to stop the lady colonel it would have to be her. She listened as Lady Une shouted at the now blank screen that Zechs was the one who didn't understand Treize and walked up to her. "No, it's you. Lady Une, the objective of the whole operation is to wipe out the rebels, not civilians. His Excellency would never want that," she spoke firmly, ignoring the looks of disbelief from the other soldiers in the room. She was shocked when she felt the sting of a hand across her cheek and turned her head from the force of the blow. She had been slapped; the bitch had actually slapped her. Noin brought her hand up and covered her newly acquired wound as she stared back at the lady colonel as she shouted at Barge to fire. She was startled as the control room's screen blinked on, revealing a very old man wearing a laboratory jacket. He introduced his self as the one responsible for the gundams and Noin found it hard to believe that such an eccentric old man could have developed machines as powerful as the gundams. She looked at him in shock as he offered to surrender.
Zechs could scarcely believe his ears; after all the effort that they had spent on retaliating, they were just going to give up at the hint of danger. His attention was drawn back to the gundam when he saw the door open. Zechs watched in amazement as a young boy appeared from the cockpit of the suit. He had merely thought that Noin was exaggerating when she had told him that the gundam pilot was a young boy. The thought of such a young child matching him in battle was a humbling and he found himself struggling to believe that it was true. Zechs looked at the boy as he held up something in his hand and gasped when he realized that it was his suits self-destruct button. The boy stared straight at him as he whispered, "Mission excepted," seconds before his suit exploded. Zechs watched the young boy fall to the ground, his head cradled in a pool of his own blood, as his words echoed throughout the Tallgeese's cockpit. Silently he cursed Lady Une for causing such a young boy to sacrifice his life to save his colonies. Zechs half expected the rest of the gundams to follow suit, but like Noin he didn't believe the odd old man to be the person behind all of the gundams. He watched as a gundam he had never seen before landed beside the destroyed machine and picked up the lifeless body of it's pilot. Zechs reassured the young man inside that he would cause him no harm and allowed the gundam to escape. He lifted back into the air and hurried to where Noin and Lady Une were stationed; it was time the lady colonel and he had a talk.
Noin looked at the screen in horror. She coldly picked up the phone and dialed into his Excellency's office. She searched Lady Une's expression as she reported the past events to Colonel Treize. All she saw was the look of someone who hadn't expected to fail; there was no remorse whatsoever on her face for the life that had needlessly been sacrificed. She calmly walked over to her, "Colonel, it's Colonel Treize." Noin slapped Une's hand away from the phone and grinned down at her, "Colonel, he said to do everything more elegantly. Be more elegant, Lady," and promptly dropped the phone onto the table as she walked towards the door. Noin ignored Une as she pressed the button for the elevator. Her face hurt like hell and she knew that her work was finished. She stepped into the elevator and pressed the down button, she wanted to catch Zechs and see if he was all right.
Zechs glared at Treize from across the room. He had just been told to leave the matter of Lady Une to Treize, a poor plan in his eyes seeing how his commander coddled the indifferent woman. He listened bored, as Treize complemented him on his skill with the new suit, but he knew that it was just a way to divert him. Zechs cut him off as he started again on how quickly the Tallgeese moved, "Enough is enough Treize, just let me go while you go talk to your colonel. I suggest that you do something before I do because she will no doubt prefer your idea of punishment to mine." He watched as one elegant eyebrow was raised at him and he was dismissed with the wave of a gloved hand. He left the office tiredly and walked toward his temporary quarters. The Tallgeese was an awe-inspiring machine but it was tiring to pilot and Zechs was beginning to feel the effects of his duel with the 01. As he settled into his bed and looked out of the window, he hoped that somehow the young boy had survived. He had almost given into the weariness of his body when he heard a light knock on his door. "Zechs," called a voice and immediately he knew that it was Noin. Zechs smiled slightly, "Come in Noin." He watched as the light from the hall filled his room and quickly disappeared. "I'm sorry… you were sleeping," he heard her whisper and quickly reassured her that he hadn't gone to bed yet. "What do you need Noin," he asked wondering why she insisted on remaining where he couldn't see her. "I just came by to see how you were feeling after piloting that monster," she answered and Zechs grinned in the darkness; she was always looking out for him. "I'm fine Noin," he said softly and turned on the lamp, surprised when Noin raised a hand to her face. "What's wrong," he asked as he sat up in bed. She was acting very strangely and then he saw it as her hand slipped down a little; she was sporting the imprint of a hand on her face. "What the hell happened to you," he said, concerned, as he sprang out of his warm bed. She jerked away when he tried to cup her face in his hand and looked down, letting her long bangs cover her face. Zechs tipped her face back up and tucked her bangs behind her ears as he examined the red mark. "Who hit you Noin," he asked coldly, already plotting to take revenge on the inconsiderate bastard. "Nobody hit me," she sighed and pulled away from him. "That's bullshit Noin, it's the same shape as a hand," he said tersely as he placed his palm on the side of her face. It was hot to the touch and it was then that he noticed the size of the handprint. While he didn't have the largest hands on the base he knew that the handprint that he was looking at didn't belong to a man. Immediately he knew who had hit her. "It was Lady Une wasn't it," he stated not caring if she answered him or not. Zechs stared down at her and leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "Do you want me to talk to her," he whispered in her ear as he pulled her into his arms. He knew that it wasn't just her face that Une had hurt but her pride; and Noin being Noin wouldn't have hit her back because she was a senior officer. Zechs sighed when she shook her head no. "Do you want to stay tonight," he asked when she pulled away. "I can't not with Treize so close by," she said as she smiled up at him. Zechs tried to pull her back against him and convince her using means other than words, but she wouldn't allow it. "All right Noin," he sighed, defeated after several minutes. He turned his head when she leaned forward and took her intended kiss on the cheek on the lips instead. He watched as she opened the door, turned around and smiled at him once more and left. Zechs turned off the lamp and crawled back into bed, a little disappointed that she hadn't wanted to spend the night. It was probably just as well, with as tired as he was. He couldn't believe that Une had slapped her and part of him ached to go to her and teach her a lesson she wouldn't soon forget but he knew that Noin would never forgive him if he did that. Deciding to leave the matter alone, Zechs closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep.
