"I don’t understand how Noin can stretch a battle strategy that should take ten minutes to explain into a three hour lecture." Helen groaned. She and Jasmine were leaving the conference room and heading to the cafeteria for a snack.
As they passed the infirmary, they noticed a familiar Asian teen heading for Indigo’s room.
"What is Joel doing down there?" Jasmine wondered.
"I dunno…"
"Come on Helen! Let’s follow him!" Jasmine grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her towards Indigo’s door.
"Jazz! Do you really think we should be spying on him?"
"Oh come on Helen, aren’t you even curious as to why he’s going in there again? Not even we have been visiting her that much!"
"Well, he did save her life. Maybe he just wants to make sure she’s OK."
"I don’t think so, Joel isn’t like that. Something’s up."
Helen moaned but peeked through the window in Indigo’s room. The two were just sitting there talking, perfectly innocent. Jasmine is out of her mind.
"Whoa! He’s leaving!" Jasmine gasped suddenly. She grabbed Helen again and pulled her around the corner just as Joel dashed out of the room.
"Where’s he going?" Helen wondered. Five minutes later, Joel was running back with a wheelchair.
Both girls were confused, but now they were both way too absorbed in what was going on to just leave. They followed Joel as he pushed Indigo down the hall and into the rec. area.
When they saw Joel and Indigo sit down under the willow tree that was enough for them.
"Oh my…Joel and Indy! Who would have thought it would get that serious!" Helen chuckled. "Well, we might as well leave them alone. It’s only a matter of time before this gets out, with the way they’re making out."
"Yeah," Jasmine agreed, "And especially when our dad is right over there."
"What! We’d better get out of here unless we want to get caught in the crossfire!"
Jasmine quickly agreed and the two girls quickly headed off to the cafeteria.
"You know Jason," David sighed, cutting into the conversation between Seth and Jason, "If you really want Helen to like you, I think you’re going about it the wrong way."
"What do you mean?" Jason asked, his eyes wide in confusion, "I got like four kisses out of her already!"
"She hates your guts."
"True, girls don’t like flirts," Seth said matter-of-factly. "Most chicks want someone sensitive."
Jason snorted, "Excuse me, but I don’t need advice from you two."
"Why not?" David wondered, "After all, I already have a girlfriend. Take my advice, try to show Helen a bit more respect, that’s what she wants, and she deserves it too."
Jason sighed, "I guess so. I mean it’s worth a shot. Nothing else has worked."
"Well, here’s your chance to start." Seth grinned. "Because her and Jasmine just walked through the door."
"Oh," David jumped up and waved them over to their table.
"Hi guys," Jasmine grinned as she slipped into the seat next to Seth. Helen was right behind her and smiled at well. "Hey David, hey Seth." Helen smiled. She turned to Jason and her face darkened. "Jason," She growled.
Oh, Seth thought while hiding his smirk, He’s got his work cut out for him.
Helen sat down across from Jason and grabbed his plate of leftover pizza, cold, of course.
Scowling, she picked off all the mushrooms and pushed the plate back over to him.
Jason watched her with an amused expression. "Glad to see you like my food."
"If you were really hungry, you would have eaten it by now." Helen shrugged, taking a bite out of the pizza.
"So what have you guys been doing?" Jasmine wondered.
Seth shrugged, "Just guy talk," He answered.
"Hn," Jasmine snorted. "Helen and I were…"
Helen shot her a glare and Jasmine stopped.
"I think it would be more fun to let them find out for themselves." Helen said to Jasmine. Jasmine sighed and nodded. "I guess."
Helen smirked triumphantly and turned back to the pizza she had claimed from Jason.
"So…" David started. "How long are you staying here, Seth?"
Seth shrugged, "As long as Catherine stays, I guess."
"Oh, that’s too bad." Jasmine sighed. "The last time Catherine was here she only stayed for two days. You should at least have some fun while you’re here."
"Oh really," Seth raised an eyebrow at her. "And what exactly do you do for fun around here?"
"Oh, just little things, like mess up the security cameras." Jasmine laughed. "Hey! That’s not a bad idea…"
Seth grinned. "Then let’s go."
"Really? You don’t mind risking getting in trouble with Noin?"
"Please, you are talking to the master of pranks." Seth grinned, "Come on!" He jumped up, grabbed Jasmine’s arm and pulled her out of the cafeteria. Jasmine was smiling as she followed him away. "Well, that was odd…" Helen remarked as she watched them leave.
"They won’t last long." David sighed, "Noin’s upped security. They’ll be surrounded by machine guns in five minutes."
Helen only shrugged and turned back to the remainder of her food, so she missed the amused looks passed between David and Jason.
"This is where the cameras are." Jasmine explained as she showed Seth the security room. "There are cameras everywhere. Most people wouldn’t have even gotten this far, but I have special authorization." She grinned. "It’s practically impossible to get rid of the goon in there, so we’ll have to hack into it. Problem is, I’m better in a mobile suit than I am with a computer. This is David and Indy’s department."
"Leave it to me," Seth chuckled.
"You think you can hack through Preventor firewalls?" Jasmine asked with a grin. "You don’t even have the passwords."
"But I have you." Seth grinned, and then he quickly added: "and you have the passwords. Come on, we need to grab a computer."
~ Within half an hour Seth was hooked up and hacking into the security camera system. "This is going to be so great!" He chuckled. He tapped away at the keys until he found the camera system. Jasmine was leaning over him, eagerly watching him as he worked."So what should we do once we get in?" Seth wondered, still tapping at the keys.
"Give the guy in there a nice show." Jasmine grinned, "He’s got a real problem with game shows. If one were to pop up, he would watch it without even noticing."
"Hm," Seth smirked, "Which do you think he’ll prefer, ‘The Price is Right’, or ‘Wheel of Fortune’?"
Inside the security office, the young Preventor in charge was shocked to see that ‘The Price is Right’ pop up on all the security cameras.
"Shit!" He cried. He frantically began to try and get the cameras working again. He was completely unable to do it. In desperation, he called Lucrezia Noin in her office.
"Noin here," Noin’s face come up on the VidPhone screen.
"Uh…Miss Noin? We have a bit of a problem in the security office…"
Noin’s face darkened, "I’ll be right there."
"HAHA!" Jasmine squealed. "This is so great. That moron must be having a heart attack by now!"
Seth wasn’t paying attention; he was playing along with the show. "11, 001." He said suddenly.
"Hun?"
Seth was still staring at the screen.
"And the price is wrong!" Bob Barker cried.
"I TOLD YOU!!!!"
"SETH!"
"WHAT?" Seth looked over his should at Jasmine.
"Will you stop it?"
On the screen, Bob Barker was saying, "And to control the pet population, please have your pets spayed or neutered."
"I think I’m going to have you both spayed and neutered pretty soon." Someone boomed from behind them. The two teens turned nervously, knowing whom they were going to see.
"Hi Noin!" Jasmine cooed, "What brings you here?"
"Just WHAT do you two think you are doing?" Noin hissed.
"Um…uh…"
"Oh yes, you had better have a good excuse."
"Well uh…you see Noin…that poor guy in there looked so bored, so we thought we’d give him a break!"
Noin gave her a disbelieving look. "How did you guys get into the security cameras? I thought I upped security!"
"You did but well, there isn’t any security system we can’t get through! Aren’t you proud of us? We got through one of the toughest security systems in the world!"
"Actually…yes, I’m impressed Seth, where did you learn that?"
"What!" Jasmine cried, "what about me?"
"Jasmine, I know you couldn’t hack into this security system if your life depended on it."
Jasmine pouted but didn’t argue that, since she knew it was a fact.
Seth shrugged and looked back down at his computer screen. "I’ve been obsessed with computers since I was a kid."
Noin’s brow furrowed in concentration. "We could use some back up here for intelligence purposes. You think you can handle it?"
"Do you mean…?" Seth’s face lit up with excitement.
"Maybe you could be a Preventor yet...but don’t think this means I’ll let you two off this easily. You could have let enemy spies into this base! I’ll expect you both to report to my office every morning at five o’clock."
Jasmine and Seth moaned.
"See what you got us into!" Jasmine scolded.
"Oh, who cares?" Seth was grinning like an idiot. "I’m going to be a Preventor!"
Jasmine groaned.
"Jazz! Wake up!" Helen cried while pounding on the other girl’s door.
"Why?"
"Because, we have to get into our positions for our next mission! Even Jason is up already!"
Jasmine groaned. After a few minutes she opened the door, partially dressed, and her hair still a mess. "At least you haven’t had to get up at four thirty every morning!" She complained.
Helen chuckled and left Jasmine alone to get dressed, while she went to the final briefing.
When she got there, she was shocked to see that Seth was there as well.
"What are you doing here?" Helen wondered.
"Seth is giving us a hand with backup communications with the base, and intelligence for this mission." Noin explained.
Seth beamed.
"Um…OK," It was true that Helen had her doubts about Seth, but she wasn’t about to voice them now. Helen took her seat and waited as Noin outlined their mission one last time and got them up to speed on last-minute changes.
Jasmine came in about halfway through the meeting, much to Noin’s disappointment; Jasmine received a nasty glare as she entered. But Jasmine only glared right back at Noin and sat down. She was already halfway through an espresso. Joel gave her an odd look when she sat down, but said nothing.
"Jason, why aren’t you in your uniform?" Noin sighed. She eyed Jason’s blue jeans and white muscle top.
Jason shrugged. "We’re going to be in our mobile suits. It’s not like anyone’s going to see what we’re wearing."
Noin groaned but didn’t push the subject. "Fine, fine, get out of here." She waved her hand to dismiss them.
"Seth, I want you in the intelligence office, pronto. The rest of you, get to your mobile suits. Jasmine and David, I want you out as soon as possible. Make sure to wait for clearance before you do anything."
"Right," They answered.
"Hey Helen, how long is this trip gonna take?" Jason asked as he punched in a few codes in the Morpha.
"Only a few hours. We’re gonna be real close to Earth, so be careful."
"Will do." Jason grinned, and his face disappeared from the screen.
Helen was slightly confused; Jason didn’t add his usual ‘babe’ at the end of his sentence. He always called her ‘babe’, what was up? Shrugging it off, she punched in her codes and followed Jason and Joel out into space.
~"We’re gonna be really close to my colony." David observed as he studied the maps. "I hope the fighting doesn’t get to close."
"Relax Dave," Jasmine groaned. "They won’t have a chance to bring the fighting anywhere. We’re going to hit ‘em with all we’ve got!"
"Maybe…" David sighed. He sat back in his seat to wait until they arrived.
"They’re on their way, General." The Neo Zion announced.
General Norris smirked. "Good, prepare the mobile dolls to greet them."
"Yes, Sir!"
"Are all the troops in position?" Jasmine hissed quietly over the voice-only intercom.
"Yeah," She heard Seth’s voice answer. "We’re just checking to make Sure the others are ready."
"Good," Jasmine smirked and licked her lips. This was going to be an excellent final battle. It would make a really great story!
"We just got word from the base." Joel announced. "We’ve got the OK. Everyone ready?"
"As ready as I’ll ever be." Jason said. Joel could just picture his smirk, even on voice-only.
"I’m all set. The troops are ready to go as well. Let’s hit it!" Helen shifted into gear and sprang forward to attack.
The Tyrant moved in with first wave of troops to attack the base. Helen took out her beam cannon and aimed at the base. As she was gathering energy for her attack, she heard Jason’s voice.
"Helen! Behind you!" He cried.
Helen turned in time to see a fleet of enemy mobile suits behind her.
"Shit! Where did they come from?"
She struggled to switch to her beam scythe, but she didn’t have enough time.
A wave of enemy suits engaged in combat with the Preventor troops.
"It’s a trap!" Joel hissed. "Helen, continue with the plan! Jason and I will back you up! We need to get rid of this base!"
"Oohhhhh, I knew it was a trap!" Jason whined. He moved in on the enemy, but they had a much more considerable military than they had anticipated.
"That database said they had mainly serpents and Leos!" Helen grumbled. "But these are practically all Virgos!" She moved out of the way of a strange new suit. The suit was armed with gatling guns in the chest and a set of larger, beam cannons on its arms instead of hands.
"What the heck are these things?" Jason groaned.
"They’re tough!" Joel agreed, "But we can take ‘em!"
"Keep it up guys!" Helen encouraged them, "We’re the children of the Gundam pilots! Let’s show them what we’re made of!"
"Dammit! Jason was right!" Jasmine screamed as an enormous fleet of enemy mobile suits came out of nowhere. "Jason is never right!"
"Jasmine! We have to keep the fighting away from the colony. If we could just lead them the other way…"
"We can’t even begin to make a dent in this group!" Jasmine hissed. "The likeliness that we’ll be able to lead them anywhere is slim to none!"
David bit his lip and concentrated on fighting the enemy. "They’re like cockroaches! Why won’t they die?"
A blow from behind caught David off guard. He was blasted far away from the battle, towards the nearby colony. David growled and tried his best to get back to the fighting before they came after him and brought the fighting closer to the colony. He couldn’t allow the colony to be harmed. Alexis was there! He would do everything in his power to protect her.
But even as he formed those thoughts, the enemy was closing in, and David’s suit was losing power fast.
He took out his beam saber and charged at the nearest suit. It was a new model, heavily armed with firearms. He easily sliced off one of its gun-arms, but there were hidden guns in its chest, and the bullets began to tear at the Gundam Armageddon’s chest.
It took David a few minutes before he could pull away, and by then, his suit was in near ruins. He looked to Jasmine for help, but she was in no better shape. Shit! And the fighting was getting closer and closer to the colony!
~~~
"We’ve got them!" General Norris cried excitedly. "They fell for our trap! I’m impressed, soon the Gundam children will be destroyed!"
He chuckled to himself. Even though that girl had damaged his ego slightly, he wouldn’t let that stop him. He had come up with a brilliant plan, and the Preventors, the idiots…they fell for it! Oh yes, it was turning out to be a good day after all!
~~~
Jason’s breathing was labored, it had been two hours since the unexpected arrival of the enemy troops, and they were no closer to finishing them off than they were at the beginning. And it didn’t help that they had now lost 52% of their backup troops.
Morpha was in bad shape, he had been trying to hold off the enemy and support Helen but was failing miserably.
Helen had long since given up continuing the original mission, and was now concentrating on helping the other two and destroying the enemy troops.
They had contacted base now a few times, but the communications were poor since they had been damaged in the fighting.
Jason moved in with his thick beam sword and attempted to attack another enemy suit, but the weapon was knocked out of his hands. Jason quickly transferred to hand-to-hand mobile suit combat. He punched his arm through one of the new mobile suits and then flung it into a second. He got so caught up in fighting, that he didn’t notice until it was almost too late that the base’s beam cannons were targeting him.
~~~
"Seth! What is going on over there?" Noin demanded.
"Jason’s group has lost 52% of their backup already, and Jasmine and David are even worse off. They have 26% of their backup left. I don’t think they can win this one, Noin. Should I tell them to pull back?"
"No! Tell them to keep it up, I’m sending more backup." Noin glanced over at Heero, who was also helping with communications.
"Heero, get the rest of the guys together. You’ve got to get out there and help your kids!"
Heero looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. He stood up and hurried out to find the rest of them.
On the intercom, Seth was saying, "Jazz, hang on a little longer. We’re sending he rest of the Gundams!"
"I don’t know if we can hold them off until they get here." Came Jasmine’s crackling reply. She was gasping for breath when Seth finally switched to talk to the second group.
"Hey guys? Are you OK over there?" He asked.
"Peachy," Helen growled sarcastically, and then they heard something slightly disturbing. "Oh shit!" the transmission was cut suddenly.
"Helen!"
~~~
Helen had been communicating with the base when she saw the enemy base’s beam cannon’s targeting Jason.
"Oh shit!" She cried. Helen cut the transmission and raced towards him.
"Helen! What are you doing!" Joel called.
"Jason’s suit won’t make it through that kind of blast!" Helen replied. "My suit is in much better shape to survive it."
"What are you…?" He turned and saw the beam cannons that were aimed at Jason and the Gundam Morpha.
"No Helen! You’re crazy!"
Helen was no longer listening. Joel watched helplessly as Helen dashed for Jason, the Earth a huge blue sphere rising behind them.
Helen managed to get her suit in front of Jason’s just before the cannons were fired.
"Hel-" Jason’s words were cut off by the impact. Helen grunted as the blast hit her and slammed the Gundam Tyrant into the Morpha behind her. It was so intense that it sent them both plummeting towards the Earth below.
~~~
"Tyrant and Morpha are down!" Seth cried. The original Gundams were already on their way to the battle areas.
The cry was heard over all of their systems. Duo cursed under his breath and sped up. His little girl was in danger!
Heero promised to destroy anymore who threatened his family; especially his son whom he had just been reunited with.
Quatre was shaky with concern for his son. He hoped that David would be OK, and his heart went out to Duo and Heero, who’s kids had been shot down. Hopefully they would both be OK…
Although Trowa’s daughter was safe at the base, he was determined to help his friends and their children, not to mention get his sweet revenge on the people that put Indigo in a hospital bed.
Wufei’s face darkened when he heard the news of Helen and Jason. He had two children out there, and a dual reason to worry, but he showed no sign of it, as always.
The five former Gundam pilots were on their way to save the day…hopefully.
~~~
"Two down, Sir!" The report was welcomed. General Norris cheered with delight. "Make sure they are taken care of when they arrive on Earth."
"But Sir, shouldn’t they already…?"
"No, they won’t die that easily. Have someone meet them on earth and take care of them!"
"Yes, Sir!"
~~~
Helen squeezed her eyes closed tightly and thought. How could she make it so she would survive passing through earth’s atmosphere, and then the impact when they hit?
She saw Jason’s suit not far from hers, she hoped he was still conscious and that he had enough brains to save himself. But she couldn’t worry about him now. She had herself to take care of.
The answer came to her, and she tapped a few keys, trying to get the atmosphere entry shield on. Her suit didn’t have enough power. All her training was put to the test as she transferred energy from all other parts of the suit to the shield.
That would take care of the atmosphere, but the impact? Well, there wasn’t much she could do about that now, except take off the shield at the last moment and turn on the thrusters. She just prayed that she would have good timing; or that she would land in something nice and soft.
~~~
Most of the older Gundam pilots went to help out Joel. Wufei, Duo and Heero arrived there, while Quatre and Trowa went to help Jasmine and David.
When Wufei saw the battlefield, he gazed in wide wonder at the scene. He was amazed that they had been able to hold out this long.
"Have you been able to get in contact with the downed suits?" Wufei asked as he joined the fight.
"No," Joel answered distractedly. "All communications with Helen and Jason are down. Their suits were knocked down to the Earth. They’re probably passing through the atmosphere as we speak."
"Shit!" Duo hissed, "Do they have enough power to make it?"
"Helen probably does, but the way they were hit, they may be unconscious. I don’t know about Jason. He was already beat up pretty badly and his suit was losing power fast. Hopefully they both have enough brains to get to the Earth as safely as possible."
"Of course they do, they’ve been through intense training." Heero reminded them, while stabbing a few suits with his beam saber. "We’ll set up a search party as soon as these battles are over.
Heero looked disgustedly at the beam saber, which was doing him almost no good, and took out the buster rifle instead. He then began to fire at the enemy mobiles.
Duo was not far from him, slicing thorough mobile suits while under the guise of his stealth cloak. They never knew what hit them.
Wufei and Joel, Heero noticed, had a similar fighting style. They were back-to-back, trying to keep the enemy away from each other. So far they were doing a good job. But naturally, Wufei couldn’t stay in one place for too long, and he darted away from his son in pursuit of an enemy mobile. Joel was left to his own devices, but he would be able to hold his own for a while longer.
Heero kept his attention on his own fight, and activated the ZERO system. As battle data flowed through his head, he realized that they would not defeat the enemy, not this time. They had to regroup, but he would not give up until he absolutely had to.
~~~
David gasped with relief when he saw his father and Trowa heading towards the battle, weapons drawn and ready to help.
They announced their approach with a barrage of bullets from Trowa’s Heavyarms.
"It’s about time you old men got here!" Jasmine hissed as she caught an enemy with her whip-like weapon and sent a wave of electricity through it. The suit exploded, and damaged two more enemies in the blast. Jasmine tossed it into a third mobile suit that was preparing to attack.
"Sorry we took so long." Quatre apologized, "How are you guys holding up?"
David started to answer when Jasmine cut him off, "Less talking, more fighting!" She screeched. Quatre stopped with the apparent small talk, deciding that they were both OK.
The first thing he realized, though, was that the battle was way too close to the colony. The colony was now within firing range of the enemy mobile suits! The second thing he noticed that they were probably better off than Joel at the other base. They had been hit pretty badly over there.
"How are the others doing?" David asked. He had to wait until his father had finished off the suits that were surrounding him before he got his answer.
"Helen and Jason have been shot down. We’ve lost communication with them."
"Dammit!" David growled.
"What about Joel?" Jasmine asked frantically.
"He’s fine, still fighting." Trowa answered.
He ran out of bullets, so Trowa resorted to the small knife that was attached to his arm.
"We’ve gotten through more than half of these guys." Quatre told them. "But we’ve lost most of our fighters as well.
"Do you think we can still hold them off?" David asked.
"Probably," Jasmine said, "these guys are just mobile dolls, so it shouldn’t be too hard to handle."
She attacked again with her whip, throwing the now destroyed remains of the mobile suit towards the colony. The mobile suit hit a docking bay door, and it flew open.
"Jasmine! Be careful! We can’t bring the colony into this fight!" David warned. "Alex is in there…" He added silently to himself.
But it looked like the enemy was dead set on bringing the fight close to the colony, making the Gundam pilots more cautious and slower in all their moves.
David fired at them with his beam cannon, and shot down a bunch of the approaching suits. Suits fired at him from the other side, and David dodged them, but the blasts then headed straight for the colony.
"No!" David cried. The beams hit the colony and punched a hole in the side.
"They’ll be OK Dave," Jasmine said to him, "Concentrate on the fight!"
David pried his eyes away from the colony and lunged viciously for the group of enemy mobiles that had fired at the colony. They were all destroyed before they had time to react.
The colony was still receiving damage from the fight. Enemy fighters missed them and hit the colony instead. David could only imagine what damage was happening inside from the debris. Was Alexis all right? Was she caught under a falling piece of debris? Was she already injured or worse…was she…? David shook his head clear. He could see now that they were winning the battle, but they would not have enough power to go back and destroy the base. Their mission was a failure, and the enemy would now have time to regroup after the battle.
This thought encouraged David, and he began to fight more aggressively. The battle went quickly after that. All the Gundam pilots put all their energy in finishing off the enemy mobile suits. Escape shuttles were leaving the colonies. It had received considerable damage, and the colony would not sustain life for much longer.
‘Please get off safely, Alexis.’ David prayed. He caught a partially destroyed mobile suit that Jasmine had thrown his way and crushed it. But some of the enemy mobiles got past him and headed for the escape shuttles.
He could hear Trowa and Jasmine cursing from their mobile suits. David moved in to intercept the mobiles, but he wasn’t fast enough. All but one of the shuttles was destroyed.
"ALEXIS!" David gasped. His fingers were going numb.
"Concentrate David!" His father told him. David did his best. The rest of the fight went quickly, and as soon as it was safe, David headed for the colony to check out the damage.
"David! Where are you going? There’s nothing there anymore!" Jasmine called after him.
"Let him go," Quatre told her. "He needs to see for himself."
Jasmine sighed and watched her friend go.
"I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble." Jasmine groaned. She followed David in her Gundam into the colony.
"What's going on over there guys?" Seth's voice came over the intercom loud and clear.
"We've finished off these guys, but there's no way we'll be able to destroy the base."
There was a pause as Seth relayed the information to Noin. "OK, you guys can come back to base now." Seth said, "But if you can help the others that would be good. They're having a tough time." "We'll see what we can do. But Jasmine and David have gone into the nearby colony. It's suffered a lot of damage, and some of the civilians who were trying to escape got shot down."
They could hear Seth curse. Noin came on after that; "You guys should go after them. I'll send some shuttles for the survivors. Keep in contact with the base."
"Will do," Quatre promised.
~~~
"ALEXIS! Alex, can you hear me?" David jumped out of his mobile suit and headed for the area of the colony where he and Alexis both lived.
"David stop!" Jasmine cried as she ran after him. David stopped and turned around to face Jazz.
"She wouldn't be at her house, David. She's probably down at the spaceport with everyone else."
David sighed and nodded. "I just hope…I hope she wasn't on one of those shuttles that got shot down…"
Jasmine smiled weakly at him. "Sure David. Let's go make sure." They started off, not bothering to even look up when Trowa and Quatre joined them and started to follow.
The spaceport wasn't far from where they entered, so it didn't take them very long to get there.
At the spaceport, there was a small crowd waiting to get onto a shuttle. David searched for Alexis and his foster parents in the crowd.
He was searching frantically through the crowd of anxious and terrified people. David kept looking, but he couldn't find his parents or his girlfriend anywhere.
Just as he was about to give up hope, he heard a familiar voice from behind him. "David!"
David turned and looked past Jasmine, Trowa and his father and saw a familiar head of red hair coming towards him. David barely had time to think before the petite girl threw herself into his arms.
"Oh David! I'm so glad you're OK!" Alexis cried.
"Alex…" David hugged her tightly. "I'm so glad you're OK. What happened over here?"
"Oh Dave! I'm so sorry! You're parents, they were on one of those shuttles that…"
David's grip on her loosened. "Oh my God…"
"Oh shit…" Jasmine gasped from behind them. She could already see the tears forming in David's eyes.
"What about your parents. Are they OK?" David asked, attempting to get his mind off his foster parents.
Alexis nodded. "They're OK. They're over on the other side." She explained. "Everyone is waiting for another shuttle, but the shuttle storage was hit and there's no way to get off." She coughed.
"The air is getting thinner. The colony can't sustain anything that breathes for much longer." Trowa said. He looked at David and Alexis, both holding each other tightly.
"Noin is sending shuttles for these people." Quatre added. "You just have to hang on for a little while longer."
David nodded and sat down on a bench next to Alexis.
"Am I going to come with you?" Alexis asked.
"To the base?"
Alexis nodded.
David looked up at his father momentarily and then he just nodded. "Of course you are." He answered, without waiting for Quatre's consent. But Quatre didn't say anything to him.
Jasmine sighed. "It's times like these that I wish I had a boyfriend." This comment gained strange looks from the others. "Just…don't tell my dad I said that."
~~~
Jason was barely conscious after the blast knocked his and Helen's mobile suits towards the Earth. But he found enough sense to do what he could to protect himself from the heat of entering Earth's atmosphere. He knew that Helen would be ok, he saw her shield activate just before the monitors blew.
Jason wanted to sleep; the heat was becoming unbearable. He had put as much energy he could into the shield, but it was almost not enough. The heat and pressure was getting to him. He saw on the charts that he was getting close to the Earth, he kept the shield on as long as he could and when it was time, switched the power to the thrusters. The thrusters slowed him a bit, before they gave out and he crashed to the ground. The impact was incredibly hard on him.
But still, Jason used the manual control to open the hatch to his Gundam and he crawled out. There was snow everywhere, and the wind was icy and harsh, but it was welcomed on his burning skin. Most of him had been protected by his heat shield, but it still looked like he had severe sunburn.
He trudged through the snow a little ways, fighting to stay up and trying to find anywhere he could go. A cabin, a town; some form of civilization and people. The snow was up to his knees, making it hard to walk. He cursed the cold weather. It never got this cold in Houston. He should have listened to Noin and worn his Preventor uniform. At least that came with a jacket.
He must have gotten a good two miles from his Gundam before the cold was getting him, and there was still no sign of civilization. There was just a lot of snow and a bunch of evergreens. Finally, Jason collapsed under the protective, lower branches of a spruce tree and passed out.
~~
Helen had almost lost sight of Jason's Gundam a while ago, they had drifted apart and now were many kilometers away from each other. She saw a small explosion from Jason's cockpit and cursed. She hoped there wasn't a fire, or Jason probably wouldn't make it.
She could see the ground rushing up to meet her now; Jason's Gundam crashed just before hers. She took note of the location. Hopefully she would be able to find him later. She switched on the thrusters and closed her eyes and prayed. The Gundam Tyrant slowed and dropped the last hundred feet or so with a loud thud.
The impact created a large crater around her, and threw up a cloud of snow. Grumbling about being caught in the cold, Helen opened the hatch only to be met with a wall of snow and a fierce, icy wind. The cold nipped at the sensitive areas of skin on the tips of her ears and her fingers. She had landed in the middle of a blizzard. Grumbling again, Helen crawled back into her mobile suit and closed the hatch. She pulled out a blanket from her emergency supplies and turned off the power in her Gundam. She needed to conserve power. Curling up under the blanket, Helen fell asleep while waiting out the storm.
~~
"Hey, hey buddy, are you OK?" The voice was soft, concerned, and feminine. Jason knew it was Helen.
Moaning, he tried to open his eyes. The snow had gotten worse and was even more fierce and blinding. There was an image of a girl standing over him.
"What are you doing out here?" She hissed. "You're going to catch your death!"
"I'm sorry Helen." Jason mumbled. He tried to focus his eyes on Helen, but the snow was whipping into his eyes and his head hurt so much that he couldn't make out any more than an outline. He looked at the puffy red coat, slush pants, and a woolen hat. "Where did you get those clothes?" Jason asked, "And when…" He focused on her hair. "When did you color your hair?"
"You must think I'm someone else." She said, "My hair has always been red, and we've never met." "Hun? What are you talking about, Helen?"
"What are you talking about? And who is Helen?"
"You are…aren't you?"
"No, my name is Brittany."
