"I can’t believe you, Helen." Seth chuckled the next morning.
"What?"
"You sent some guy home on the first day! Unconscious!"
"He deserved it," Helen shrugged.
"And David! You were supposed to keep an eye on her! Why do you think Noin put you on training with her?"
David shrugged as well, "He did deserve it…"
Seth sighed. "You’re hopeless." He groaned.
"Why didn’t you call me?" Jasmine complained. "I could have gotten a picture!"
"Well I didn’t exactly plan it…"
"Hey! Helen!" Jeff suddenly appeared at the table and invited himself to sit down. "That was great yesterday! You should have seen that guy’s friends!"
"I’m glad you enjoyed it." Helen said, taking a sip of her coffee. "And it’s instructor Helen to you."
"It is? Since when?"
"Since now. Your training day has officially started."
"Hn, Helen’s kinda cranky today." Seth laughed, "So watch out if you’ve got her for an instructor."
"I’ve noticed that."
Seth leaned in close to the black teen and whispered, "Be careful, she’s a real bitch on wheels."
"I heard that!"
David sighed," We should get going Helen. We don’t want to be late."
"OK," She sighed and then looked over at Jeff. "You won’t want to be late either." She warned.
~~~
"Are we done yet?" Brittney moaned.
"Not yet," Her mother answered, "Just a few more tests."
"But we’ve been doing tests all night! I’m tired!"
"Oh be quiet! Are these the actions of a former Neo Zion officer? Toughen up!"
Brittney glared at her mother before getting back in the simulator to do another test.
"You want this new mobile suit to be perfect don’t you?"
"Why can’t you get Seth to do these stupid tests?"
"Seth will do them when you’re finished."
Brittney grumbled a bit and started up the simulator. Cheryl was frantically taking notes.
Brittney was right in the middle of destroying a group of space Leos when the simulator suddenly shut off.
"Mom? What happened?" She called. But Cheryl didn’t hear her. She was still sifting through statistics. Brittney groaned and peeled off the helmet and stepped out of the machine.
"Hey Brit,"
Brittney yelped and fell back into her seat. She wasn’t expecting to run into anybody. "Jason! What are you doing?" Brittney gasped.
"Just coming for a visit." He grinned. He grabbed Brittney’s hand and helped her out.
"I can’t talk now, Jason. I’ve got some more tests to do with my mom…"
"Your mom?" Jason looked behind him. Cheryl was buried in paperwork the machine was spewing out.
"I think she’s a little busy." He laughed.
Brittney laughed as well and followed Jason out into the hallway. Cheryl was still clueless when they slipped out the door.
Cheryl heard the door close and looked up from the statistics she was reading. "Brittney?" she looked around, "Who turned off the simulator? Brit?" She walked over to the simulator and peeked in. "Brittney? Where’d you go?"
~
"Wow, it’s about time I got out of there. My mom’s taking her new job pretty seriously. She’s had me in there since 4:30 this morning."
"Yeah, I thought you deserved a break."
"So what are you doing today?"
"Well, I’m, supposed to be training, but I got enough yesterday. Helen had us all in a major workout yesterday."
"Yeah, where is she anyway?"
"Didn’t you hear? Noin put her on rookie training."
Brittney snorted. "Rookie training!" She laughed. "I bet she’s enjoying that."
"Yeah…"
"So why aren’t you down there helping her?"
"Hun? Why should I be?"
"I don’t know…I guess I thought there was something between you two…"
"Me and Helen? Nah, that’s over with."
"Well, she didn’t look to thrilled when I came back."
"Yeah I know, Helen likes to be at the top of everything. She’ll get over it."
"So you don’t like her?"
"Well…I used to, but I gave up on her."
"That’s not what Seth said,"
"Hn, Seth like’s to exaggerate. Helen and I are just getting along better. I’m completely free."
"Really? Is that a hint?"
"Mm, maybe…" Jason grinned. He stepped up to her and slowly backed her up against the wall.
"Jason I…" She stopped when he suddenly captured her lips. She wanted to protest, but she couldn’t. If Seth found them, or her mother, they would be in trouble. Still, she submitted and slowly brought her hands around him. She could feel Jason smirk before he pulled back.
"I…I don’t usually do that." Brittney admitted.
"Really? I do…as long as Jasmine isn’t around with her camera."
Brittney laughed and straightened up. She heard her mother calling her from inside the room.
"I think I should go." She said.
"Oh…do you have to?" Jason whined. He moved in and nipped playfully at her neck.
Brittney giggled and pushed him away. "Really, she going to figure out that I’ve left the room soon."
Jason sighed, "Alright," He reluctantly let her go and watched her disappear into the room. After a minute he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away.
~~~
Saber had already been training for two hours when the other ‘rookies’ started to file in. He ignored their usual chatter as they entered. He wanted to hurry up with his training so he could get to his real mission. He couldn’t believe Preventor training would really take months. Either it was very extensive, or they had a bad training program. Saber decided it was probably the latter.
He turned when the two instructors entered. He liked the girl, Helen. She knew what she was doing. He wasn’t so sure about the blonde guy.
As they found their places, the rookies knew to fall into ranks. No one wanted to have a run-in with Helen the way Jordan had. He had been sent home in an emergency shuttle.
Saber, unfortunately, was stuck beside the annoying black guy, Jeff. Jeff looked unusually at ease, despite the bad temperament of their instructor. Maybe it was because he felt he was on good terms with her. Saber has seen them talking earlier.
"Well," Helen smiled at the group. "I hope after yesterday everyone who’s not up to this had left. I’m guess you guys here still think you have what it takes. So let’s see."
She nodded at David, who brought out a few workout machines.
"We’re going to start with some simple warm up exercises and tests on the bars. So…who wants to go first?"
~
"Come on, you can do a hundred chin ups, can’t you?"
The girl on the bars was almost in tears, both in embarrassment and stress.
"You’ve got ten more to go," Helen encouraged her.
"I’m not very strong," she complained.
"Of course you are, you just need to work out a bit more." She made a few notes and nodded at the next person to come. She cast a glance at David who was busy testing the other half f the group on their strength.
She was just helping the next person up onto the bars when Jasmine came running in with Seth at her heels.
"Helen! David!" jasmine gasped.
Helen turned around, annoyed at the disruption. "Don’t you two have anything better to do than bother us?"
"No time for that Helen." Seth said, "The leader of the Matatara Foundation is about to make a statement!"
"What! David let’s go!" She cried as she dashed off after Seth and Jasmine.
"What? Wait a minute, Helen! What about the class." He groaned as he ran after her. It wasn’t long before the entire group of rookies took off as well.
~
When the group arrived at the control room where the message was being received, the leader of the Matatara Foundation had just started speaking.
There was a young woman on the screen, probably only around eighteen or nineteen years old. She had silvery hair that fell all the way to her hips and was in tight curls, and her mint green eyes were cold and unfeeling as she smiled at the people in the room.
"Greetings Preventors, I am giving this message to you, and soon to the entire world. My name is Cassius, and I am the leader of the Matatara Foundation. As the representative of the Matatara Foundation, I am hereby declaring war against the Earth Sphere, and more specifically the Preventor Organization."
Noin’s face tightened and she glared at the woman on the screen.
"Why are you doing this?" Noin demanded. "What do you want?"
"What do I want? What do you think I want? I want what every great leader has ever wanted; I want to rule. I want to make my dream a reality. Is that so wrong?"
"It is when you kill innocent people to do it, you gray-haired old witch!" Helen shouted.
"Gray!" Cassius glared at the girl dangerously. "It is silver you idiot! And it’s much better than your hair, you gothic cross-dresser!"
Helen was taken aback; what was she talking about? Helen didn’t even have time to respond, because Cassius continued.
"You should be glad I was thoughtful enough to warn you before I sent the entire world into a panic!"
"You’ll never achieve anything. We’re going to destroy you and your pathetic organization. You’ll go to prison, where you belong."
"Ick. I’ll never go to such a place and wear those disgusting orange jumpsuits." Cassius replied haughtily, "But if these people are smart, they’ll lock you up, and save the good-looking people the trouble of looking at you." She laughed.
"Why you little…" Helen seethed. "You’ll see just how powerless you are! And then I’ll have the pleasure of shaving your head before they throw you away!"
"Powerless? And you’ll shave my head too, will you? I’ll show you that I mean business! You’re Helen Maxwell aren’t you? I believe you have a family down in Toronto, am I correct?"
Helen’s eyes widened. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"
"I’ll show you how I deal with insulance! You’ll be sorry when all of Toronto is in flames."
Helen’s jaw dropped to the floor. "Y-you can’t be serious!"
"I’m very serious, say goodbye to your family."
"NO!" Helen screamed. There was a beeping sound next to her and the screen flashed.
"Miss Noin, there is a nuclear missile headed towards the greater Toronto area, ma’am!"
"No!" Helen choked; she stared at the screen, which clearly showed the missiles heading towards her family.
She fought back tears and ran to the window, which had a view of Earth. She got there in time to see a burst of flames from where her hometown used to be.
"Mom! Dad!" Helen spun and glared at the screen. "You…you bitch! You monster! How could you do that? There wasn’t anything in it for you! We didn’t even have a base there!"
"I’ll tell you why I did it," Cassius chuckled, "Its called revenge, dear, and I live by it. Now I think you’ll take me seriously, I’ll see you on the battlefield."
"No! Come back here!" Helen screamed as Cassius disappeared. "Come back!"
Helen didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she lunged for the communication equipment. Luckily, Jeff grabbed her around the waist before she could smash it to pieces.
"Let me go!" Helen screamed. She struggled to free herself, but Jeff wouldn’t let go.
"Calm down Helen, there’s nothing you can do."
Helen knew that, and she soon stopped struggling and broke down into tears. A picture of her little sister, Erin, being engulfed in flames flickered in her mind. She was able to recall her dream, only this time; her family was being burned alive instead of her.
"Take her to her room," Noin sighed. "She needs some rest. Sally, can you take care of her?"
"I’ll do my best." Sally replied.
"I’ll go with you." Duo said. He walked over and helped Helen to her feet and gave her a hug.
"It’s OK baby," He whispered. "Come on you need some sleep."
Helen didn’t argue as she was lead away.
Hilde looked at her daughter and wanted to cry. She ran after Duo and Helen, and then Sally followed as well.
"Oh poor Helen," Brittney sniffled. "I couldn’t imagine…" She wiped away a few stray tears of her own.
Jason stared at Helen until she was completely out of sight. He knew exactly how she felt. He’d lost his adoptive parents too, after all. It seemed like all the kids were slowly losing their families.
~~
Jeff was as confused as hell. After Helen had broken down like that he did his best to help her. It was disturbing to see his tough instructor in tears.
He didn’t stick around after it was all over. He didn’t want to get in the way. Instead, he headed out to the basketball courts, in the quad. Basketball was the one thing that always helped him clear his head. He’s been playing since he was a kid.
He dribbled the ball slowly and faced the net. He shot the ball and watched it fall easily into the net.
"Nice shot," Someone said. Jeff turned around and saw Jason standing behind him.
"Thanks," Jeff replied.
"Hey, uh...Jeff right?"
Jeff nodded.
"I just wanted to thank you…for helping Helen."
Jeff stopped and blinked. He hadn’t really expected anyone to really notice that.
"I didn’t do much," He shrugged.
"You did, at least you cared enough to go to her."
"I bet you’re just kicking yourself because you didn’t get there first."
Jason laughed, "I am, I think it’s shameful really. That someone she barely knows went to support her before her friends did."
"Don’t sweat it, I was closer, that’s all."
"Maybe…I don’t mean to make excuses but we’ve really been out of it lately. It’s tough getting back into a schedule of war after so long. And our instincts are a little slow. I had hoped we’d never have to do this again…"
"Enough with this serious talk! Instructor Maxwell will be fine in a day or two. Now are you going to play some ball with me or not?"
Jason grinned, "Ok, but I’m warning you, I’m pretty good."
"Yeah…right…"
~~~
"It looks like the game has begun." Cassius smirked to herself. Her mole was in place. She’d told him not to contact her, but she saw him when she delivered her message to the Preventors. Everything was going as planned. Now that she had revealed her identity to the population, things would be moving a lot faster.
She couldn’t wait until the real fun began.
~~~
"Is Helen OK?" Noin asked as Sally entered the lounge area. She as well as the original pilots and their wives were waiting in there.
"She’ll be just fine." Sally said, flipping her twisted hair over her shoulder. "I gave her something to help her sleep. She should be a bit calmer in the morning. Duo and Hilde are still down there with her."
"This new enemy is ruthless." Quatre frowned. "They are a lot different from Neo Zion."
"Yeah…" Dorothy agreed. "I hadn’t expected such casualties so suddenly."
"And there will be a lot more," Midii sighed. "The last thing I want is for my daughter to go out to war again. I know the horrors of it first hand."
"We all do," Sally said. "But we also have to realize the importance of fighting and protecting the peace. This isn’t going to be easy, but it’s what we have to do."
Wufei nodded, "So what are we going to do?"
"One thing’s for sure; we need a lot more soldiers. We’re too powerless as we are." Trowa said.
"That’s why we’re having Cheryl build those new Gundams for Seth and Brittney. Both should go into mobile suit training immediately. What we need a foolproof strategy to put out this fire as quickly as possible." Noin informed them.
The rest of them quickly agreed. "I’ll get people on it right away." Heero said as he stood up. "I just hope the kids are ready for this."
~~~
Jasmine sighed for the umpteenth time that day. Ever since seeing Cassius’ message, she was feeling kind of depressed; a rare thing for the Chinese girl.
"What’s wrong Jazz?" Seth asked from inside the mobile suit he was helping her with.
"Nothing, I was just thinking about Helen."
"Yeah, she must be feeling pretty rough right now." Seth agreed.
"I can’t imagine losing my family so quickly like that." She continued.
"Hey, don’t get all beat out of shape about it." Seth warned her. "You’re just going to get even more depressed."
"I know," Jasmine sighed again. She wiped her hands on her jeans and dropped her protective gloves to the ground.
"Need a break?" Seth asked.
Jasmine nodded.
"You’re being so quiet. That’s not like you…" Seth suddenly smiled. "Come here, I know how to cheer you up." He stood up and grabbed Jasmine around the waist and pulled her into the cockpit of the mobile suit.
Jasmine giggled and gladly fell into his lap and planted her lips firmly against his. Seth grinned and hit the button to close the hatch on the suit.
"You certainly do know how to make me feel better." Jasmine laughed as she kissed him again. Seth was just diving in for another kiss when the hatch finally closed and they were alone.
