By Becca
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Two weeks later...
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Rebecca stood in front of Heero, Wufei, Quatre, Trowa, and Duo who were all sitting around a table. Duo was still a little sore from the wounds Jean had given him. All five of the boys had self destroyed their gundams because Rebecca assured them that they wouldn't be needed anymore. Rebecca rang her hands as Wufei finally spoke.
"Well woman, why did you call us here?"
Rebecca ignored the woman remark and stated, "I know how we can stop Battre ou Touer. If we destroy Z, the organization will go into chaos and destroy itself. And, unfortunately, I will probably need ya'll's help."
"Oh, how?" Quatre asked hopeful.
"Well, we have to kill Z. That's the first and best solution. But I want Jean to stay alive... she was just manipulated to act the way she does... she really does have a good heart down there somewhere. Also, I've got to destroy the Jaguar gundam. I have a feeling that Tigeress and Jaga have been built too so I'll have to destroy them as well," Rebecca explained.
"Tigeress? Jaga? Jagua? I've never heard of those," Duo stated skeptically while crossing his arms.
"That's because I designed them," Rebecca stated without an ounce of pride in her voice.
"Please woman, do you expect us to believe that?" Wufei challenged angrily.
"Yes... And here's your proof..." she whispered. She leaned down and retrieved a small brown leather bag from under the table. She removed a spiral with a black covering. She opened it to reveal plans and equations for three gundams: Jaga, Tigeress, and Jaguar.
"These are deadly," Heero whispered.
"I was trained to design deadly ones. I have the original, and I already deleted the copies from Z's database. No one will be able to build them again without me."
"You hope no one will be able to," Wufei created.
Rebecca swallowed a comment she was going to say to Wufei and continued.
"I've tracked down Z's base. He'll be there until Friday night. Here's the plan:
Heero and Duo: you two sneak in Thursday night. I want you two to disarm any and all gundams Z has. I've give you special passwords that will disarm them without you having to work on the inside. I also have a password that will make them self destruct, but I will only give it to you if you swear that you will only use it if your lives are in danger.
Wufei: I need you to destroy the other bases of Battre ou Touer. I'll give you the coordinates; you'll need to destroy them quickly before his second in command realizes what's going on and stops us.
Quatre: You will be a distraction to lure Z out to where we can attack him. Be careful, Jean will do anything to protect him. Duo, you'll go as back-up for Quatre.
Trowa, you're a look out. Make sure that neither Z or Jean try to leave. If they do, stop them however you need to short of killing them," Rebecca explained.
"And you?" Wufei asked raising an eyebrow.
"Me? I get to kill Z."
The five looked at her skeptically as she replaced the spiral in her brown bag.
"Maybe you should-" Quatre started.
"I get to do it, period," Rebecca whispered.
"That's all fine and dandy, but where will you be?" Duo asked.
Rebecca smiled, hiding her eyes with her bangs.
"I'll tell ya'll once we get there. Do ya'll except this mission?" she whispered.
"Mission accepted," all five chimed.
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The day finally came. Everything went as planned and smoothly. Heero and Duo broke in and disarmed the Jaguar, Jaga, and Tigeress gundams. Luckily, Jean and Z didn't hear them. Next, Quatre skillfully walked in. As soon as he was in the middle of the warehouse, Quatre shot a round of bullets in the air. Immediately, Jean pounced on him out of nowhere, and they started fighting on the ground, ripping at each other.
Z walked very calmly in as Jean pinned an unconscious Quatre to the ground.
"Good job, Ookami," he stated as he pointed a gun at the still stunned Duo.
"Why are you here?" Jean growled at Duo.
Duo tried his best not to look nervous and just stared at her. She started to walk over as if she were about to hit him.
"Wait, don't kill him... He'll be of use as will the Arabia one," Z stated.
Jean growled at Duo angrily, "You're lucky this time baka."
Right behind Jean and Z, unknown to them, Rebecca jumped and landed without a sound- just as she had been trained. She walked behind a stack of crates, still not making a sound. No matter what, she would always have that skill.
With a shaky hand, she withdrew her gun. She took a deep breath and tried to remember what Trowa had said earlier.
Rebecca had been waiting outside, trying to get used to holding a gun. Trowa came behind her and steadied her hand.
"Aim with both eyes," he instructed softly.
Rebecca held up the gun and did as she was told.
"Try not to think about what you're doing or what the shot will result in. Try to clear everything from your mind but your target, then fire."
Rebecca aimed the gun at Z's heart and cached it. Jean's head popped towards her. Rebecca tried to ignore Jean and aim the gun.
'Clear everything from your mind but your target,' she thought trying to steady her hand, 'I've only got two bullets; I have to try and get it on the first shot...'
Just as she pulled the trigger, Jean pushed Z out of the way, making him drop his gun. Rebecca silently cursed her and went to the next bullet.
"I know where you are, Rebecca, you might as well come out! That is, if you're not a coward!" Jean challenged.
Rebecca slowly and gracefully appeared without making a sound. She still had the gun held up, straight at Z's head. Her hand was not shaking, and she was not turning white. The only thing she could see was her target, and the only thing she could do was try and hit it.
Z smiled as Rebecca stared at him. Then he started laughing uncontrollably.
"Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca... you simple child... you are not skilled in fighting; I made sure of that," Z stated after laughing.
"That's where you're wrong," Rebecca whispered as Z stepped in front of Jean. Jean saw his gun on the ground and picked it up.
"Don't you understand? When your first scientist trained you plainly in intelligence and almost no obedience, I knew you'd be a rebel. You knew right from wrong- you knew what freedom and independence were, and you thirsted for it. So, when I got you, I broke your spirit and gave you nothing to fight with. You are simply a defenseless fox; I made you that way. And you can't change that," he explained smiling.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes and whispered, "That's not true anymore..."
She closed her eyes and fired her last bullet. She opened them and let her gun drop. Z had stepped out of the way, making the bullet hit Jean in the arm. Z started laughing again.
"See, I was right. I made sure both of you had a weakness you could never overcome! Jean couldn't disobey if she wanted, and you can't shoot a gun to save your own life! I control you!" Z exclaimed and started laughing.
A deep growl emitted from Jean's throat. She raised Z's gun and started shooting him. Everyone stared as she kept firing, over and over again, even when the gun was out of bullets.
The entire time she was firing (and after she ran out of bullets), she screamed, "Jerk! That's not true! You pervert! You ruined my life! You took away everything I needed! This is for beating me so many times! This is for all the training! This is for all the fights I had to fight! This is for all the innocents I was forced to kill and THIS IS FOR ME!"
After a moment of no bullets, she dropped the gun and fell to her knees crying. Duo and Rebecca looked at each other and then her. Rebecca slowly walked over and knelt beside Jean.
"Jean... it's OK... he's dead now..." she whispered rubbing Jean's back.
Jean looked up with tear stained eyes smiling.
"I know... I'm free... I-I just can't believe I'm free..." Jean whispered smiling.
"Yeah... we both are..." Rebecca agreed smiling.
Jean started crying uncontrollably, and Rebecca hugged her. After a few moments, Quatre returned to the world and stood up. Heero and Trowa walked in as well. Duo knelt beside Jean as well. He started stroking her back as she cried harder.
After what seemed like eternity, Quatre asked, "Well Rebecca, what now?"
Rebecca looked up with misty eyes. She looked at the four men standing in front of her. She slowly stood up and looked up at the three disarmed gundams behind her.
"Trowa, Quatre, and Heero, how about each of you take one of the gundams I designed, go to a deserted area and destroy them. I'll take Kitsune and destroy her. That way, no one will be able to use the gundams for war."
The three nodded and after having Rebecca activating the gundams again, all except Trowa flew off. Jean was no longer crying, but she held her face in her hands and hung her head in shame. Duo had comforting arms around her shoulders and was still stroking her back. She immediately shrugged him off.
Rebecca walked over to Jean and kneeled down again. She took her hands off her face so that she could look Jean in the eye.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry for how I treated you the last few years. We've both couldn't be nicer to each other... And I forgive you for always trying to kill me... No hard feelings?" Rebecca asked extending a hand.
Jean nodded and slowly shook Rebecca's hand. Rebecca smiled and gracefully rose. She then walked out; Trowa jumped into the last gundam and flew behind her.
Duo looked at Jean who was still staring out the direction Rebecca had just left.
"Well... what are you going to do with your new found freedom?" Duo asked rubbing her back.
"I... I don't know... My entire life has been fighting... It's the only thing I know how to do..." Jean whispered looking at him.
"Well, how about you come live with me? I'll teach you how to fix cars at my junk yard," Duo suggested.
Jean looked at him strangely as Duo smiled at her. She couldn't believe he was actually offering her a home after the way she treated him.
"You... you would do that for me?" she whispered.
"Sure! No hard feelings for trying to kill me! Sure... it hurt like heck, but hey, we all do dumb things... I do at least one dumb thing a day!" Duo exclaimed smiling.
Jean corner smiled beside herself. Then she burst out laughing.
"What? Am I amusing to you?" Duo teased.
Jean's smile soon faded though. She didn't know what to think of freedom. Z had made sure she didn't even really know what the word meant. Would she even enjoy it?
"What's with that look?"
"I-I don't want to be free..."
"WHAT?! Why not?!" Duo exclaimed.
"I've-I've never been free... I don't think I'd like it..."
"Jeannie... freedom is great! Look, I'll show you how great it is... but you'll have to trust me...," Duo trailed.
Jean gave him a look saying, "Do you really expect me to?"
"All right, ok, look... um... I promise I won't touch you without your permission if you come. And you promise not to punch or shoot me again, all right? You packed a punch, girlie!" he exclaimed smiling.
"Well..."
"What have you got to lose?" Duo asked sincerely.
"Agreed..." Jean whispered.
Duo got up and extended his hand to help Jean up. She very slowly took it and rose. Duo allowed Jean to lean on him as they walked out of the warehouse and started towards his junkyard.
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Rebecca sat in Kitsune's cockpit letting everything set in. Thirteen years of her life had been spent fighting, hacking, and designing gundams. Thirteen out of eighteen years. It was all she knew how to do. When she self destructed Kitsune, she would be destroying all that as well.
Rebecca put her bean bag fox on her shoulder and removed the lonely fox poster from behind. She put in a disk and started loading data on it.
"Rebecca, what are you doing?" Kitsune's voice asked.
"I'm about to self destruct you... that way no one will be able to use you for war..."
After a moment, Kitsune's voice stated, "I understand you having to destroy me, Rebecca."
Rebecca smiled and stated, "Kitsune, I've destroying the gundam itself, but I'm loading your personality to this disk. I'll load you onto my lap top or something... Don't worry, I'd never destroy you. You're the one thing that helped me keep my sanity all these years. Besides, I'm the only gundam pilot who had a gundam that could talk back to them; I need your personality as proof."
After a long pause, Kitsune stated gratefully, "Thank you, Rebecca."
"Of course old friend... of course."
"Where shall we be relocating to?"
"Um... I'm not sure yet... I'll keep you informed."
"All right."
Finally, the data finished loading. Rebecca extracted the disk and took out the self-detonator. She jumped out of Kitsune and walked a good distance away.
She slowly pressed the button whispering, "Good-bye."
She watched her gundam blow up, leaving behind a big cloud of dust and smoke. A hand gently touched her shoulder and squeezed it.
"Are you all right?" Trowa asked softly.
"Yeah..." Rebecca whispered turning to face him, "It's just hard saying good-bye."
Trowa nodded and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She sighed and looked up at him.
"It's so strange... I've been doing this for thirteen years and now... I don't know what to do..."
Trowa looked off for a moment and then whispered, "You are welcome back at the circus with me... I'm sure your fan dancing act will be very popular..."
"What about Catherine?" Rebecca asked quietly.
"I think she'll learn to like you," Trowa stated with a small smile.
"You sure I won't be in the way?"
Trowa looked down at her with very loving eyes.
"No, you won't be in the way. In fact, you'll fit in just fine."
Rebecca smiled and nodded.
"All right then... To the circus... But, can I change my costume?"
"No."
"What?! Why not, Trowa?!"
"Because I like it," Trowa stated smiling.
"Oh, I bet you do, Barton!"
Trowa just smirked as they started walking away.
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Epilogue:
One year later, Rebecca and Trowa were married. It was a very small reception, just Catherine and Quatre were present.
Jean and Duo lived at his junkyard in the middle of no where. After many trials, they became romantically involved again. As for marriage, who knows when that will occur.
Quatre is still running his father's business and still has too much paperwork.
Wufei is still at the Preventer's, working along side Sally Po.
Heero disappeared into the crowd, once again, to appear when he was once again needed.
The End... for now
