Indigo couldn’t stand being in Europe. She was so close to…to her home. She’d tried watching the TV, but the news of the horrific bombing of one of the world’s major cities was on every channel. She angrily switched off the TV and decided to occupy herself with going over strategies for their next battle. She knew that Noin would appreciate any help she could get. Her mind began to think in ways it never had before. It seemed that the grief had a strange effect on her. She pulled you a scrap of paper and began to make notes. She scribbled and scratched out, and erased her ideas, perfecting her plan.
She smirked to herself as she worked, knowing that the Matatara would never know what hit them. Cassius would think twice before messing with her again.
~
"I’m worried about her." Joel admitted. He watched his girlfriend working furiously. "She’s beginning to remind me of David.
"Well, we don’t want that." Jasmine chuckled.
"I’m serious." The twins were watching Indigo, and Joel was pretty surprised that she had not noticed them yet. "Look at her, she’s working so quickly, it’s as if there’s no tomorrow."
"Well, if you think about it, with this war going on, maybe there isn’t a tomorrow for some people."
Joel frowned, Jasmine was right. After what happened to Toronto and Paris, anything seemed possible.
"Maybe we should just leave her alone." Jasmine suggested. "She’s still pretty upset."
"Yeah…" Joel agreed reluctantly. He thoughts drifted unconsciously to his own mother, who had also been in Paris. He shook his mind clear and followed his sister. The two Changs turned and left the French girl alone.
~~~
David, in his ‘own’ room, was also pouring through notes. He was still reading when the phone rang. He looked at it and decided to let Pagan answer it; he was busy. The ringing stopped and he went back to work. But then Pagan came to his door.
"Master David, there is a young lady on the line for you."
David was confused, "Um…OK…thanks Pagan." He picked up the phone in his room. "Hello?"
He saw a face pop up on the screen and was surprised. "Alexis!"
The girl’s face was red and tear-stained. "David, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! It took me hours to get the HQ to tell me where to reach you!"
"Lex? What’s wrong?" David asked anxiously. "Were you crying?"
Alexis sniffled and nodded. "Did you h-hear what h-happened to…P-Paris?"
"Of course I have. Indigo’s been acting really anti-social ever since. Why?"
"David, my parents were there…"
"WHAT!"
Alexis said nothing.
"Are you OK, Lex?"
She shook her head slowly. "The only reason I wasn’t there was because I was sick." She explained.
David grit his teeth, Cassius had gone too far. She’d messed with the others, and he felt sorry for them, but her never really understood how they had felt. Now he did. It was almost as if Cassius had planned everything perfectly.
"Hang on Lexis, I’m going to come there."
"What! No, David you can’t! They need you over there."
"That’s OK, I’ll bring you back with me. I’ll be there by tomorrow."
"But…" But it was too late. David hung up the phone and grabbed his things. In two minutes flat he was racing out the door.
"Hey Dave, where are you going?" Brittney asked as he nearly ran into her at the stairs.
"Tell the others I’m taking a shuttle up to L2. Be back in a couple days."
"But…David!" She watched helplessly as David stumbled down the stairs and ran out the door. "That guy is sooooooo weird." She said to herself as she shook her head.
~~~
When Cassius got word of David’s phone call, she was furious.
"What! How could you let this happen?"
"It was out of our control, Ma’am." The messenger replied. "The parents made the girl stay home because of an illness."
"They made her stay home because of illness." Cassius mocked in a nasal voice. "FIX IT!"
"Y-Yes ma’am." The man stuttered. He saluted and hurried off.
"Incompetent little…" She growled and pounded the keys on her computer. In seconds she saw the interior of the Yuy mansion. "Lets see how our friends are doing."
In the living room, Indigo Barton was working on something. She decided to figure out what it was later. She really hated that she didn’t have sound, but she had to take what she got. The two Changs were talking as they walked down a long corridor, Brittney was on the stairs, and Seth was in the Kitchen with Jason. But David was the one she was looking for. He was already in the mansion’s hanger, climbing up into one of the shuttles.
Cassius laughed, "That poor, stupid boy. Oh well…perhaps and I can come up with something better for him."
~~~
"What do you mean David left?" Noin demanded.
"I mean he left," Brittney shrugged. He just made a mad dash for the hanger and told me to tell you guys that he went to L2."
"Why would he do that?" Quatre frowned.
"Don’t you see, Quatre?" Dorothy grinned, "He’s gone to see his girlfriend…"
"W-what?" Quatre blushed. He’s long since learned how to interpret what his wife was implying. Duo chuckled, "Leave him alone guys. If David says he’ll be back in two days, then he’ll be back in two days. In the mean time, we should work on our plan of attack."
"I guess you’re right." Noin sighed. "We’ll continue without him for now."
Wufei grumbled something about irresponsibility under his breath.
Just then, Indigo barged in.
"Indy! Where have you been?" Joel asked as he approached her. Indigo ignored him as she slammed a pile of papers down in front of Noin. "I’ve got it," She grinned. "It’s perfect!"
"What?" Noin looked over the sheets and got a thoughtful expression on her face. "This is pretty good Indigo, but…"
"But?" indigo urged.
"You realize this will result in an intense mobile suit battle."
"That’s why we have the Gundams." Indigo stated. "I think we can handle this."
"Let me see," Heero said as he took the papers. He studied them for a moment before stating, "It just might work…"
~~~
"Lex? Alexis, I’m here!" David knocked on his girlfriend’s door before he let himself in. Before he could even step inside, someone slammed into him.
"David! I can’t believe you’re actually here!" Alexis hugged him tightly and they both fell to the ground. David wasn’t even allowed to speak until he was successfully covered with kisses. "Where are your parents?" Alexis asked.
"I left them back on Earth." He replied. He stood up and helped Alexis to her feet. "Are you sure you’re OK?"
"No, but I will be in a little while."
"Ok,"
"Are we going back to wherever you were?"
David nodded and took her hand. "Let’s go then." He offered her no explanation as to why he wanted to leave so quickly. Cassius probably knows where this place is. We need to go quickly.
"Why do we have to go so quickly?"
David shrugged. "I just don’t want to leave you here. And I need to get back."
"Oh…well then let me grab some clothes first, OK?"
"Ok," David sighed. He sat down at her kitchen table and waited.
~~~
"So what took you so long, Dave?" Helen snorted as David finally found his way back to the Yuy mansion.
"It takes a while to get to the colonies and back." David explained absently. He reached up and helped Alexis down from the shuttle.
"You brought your girlfriend back with you?" Helen eyed the redhead suspiciously. Alexis blushed and David glared at her.
"It’s about time Davie boy!" Jason greeted the blonde teen. "We’ve been waiting for you to get back so we can get on with our next mission." He paused and looked at Alexis. "Oh, hey Lex!" He greeted her.
"Hi," Alexis smiled at the familiar face.
"I’ll find you an spare room before we continue, I guess."
"Thanks Jason." David and Alexis followed Jason up the stairs. Pluto got up from where he was sleeping and chased after them.
Helen sighed, "Some people just don’t think."
She turned and headed the other way for the living room where they were holding their meeting.
"Is David back?" Quatre questioned.
"Yeah, and he brought his girlfriend."
Dorothy started to laugh maniacally.
~~~
"Alright, here’s the plan." Noin stood up and eyes the room to check one last time and make sure everyone was present. Only Alexis was absent because she wasn’t really welcome at a top-secret meeting.
The only non-Preventor present was Pluto, the dog.
"Indigo has been working very hard on this plan, so pay attention. It involves a decoy. We set up two attacks on two known Matatara foundation missiles bases. But only in one of them will be a real attack." She looked at the blank faces around the room and sighed.
"Let me explain. There is one base in the L7 colony cluster, and another just outside the L1 cluster. We stage an attack on the L1 base, and send the Gundams to L7."
"But won’t Cassius catch on to this? I mean, she is watching our every move." Joel pointed out.
"That’s where it gets more complicated. Not all the Gundams will be sent to L7. It is likely that Cassius will catch on to this plan, and will send most of her mobile suits to L7. So while she’s there, the Gundams will keep her occupied and the rest of the Gundams will attack the L1 base. It’s fashioned so that no matter which base Cassius decided to go to, we will be ready for her."
"Indigo came up with all this?" Duo gawked. Hilde smacked him and Noin smiled. "Yes she did. And I think it just might work. So let’s get going on the details of this plan and smooth it out before we begin. I want everything to be perfect."
~
In a few hours, it was decided that David, Brittney, and Jason would wait at the L7 base, and Helen and Indigo would go to L1. Joel and Seth would wait behind at a Preventor base between the two clusters as backup. Jasmine was disappointed that she had to stay behind, but she was still in no condition to go out and fight.
There were a lot of doubts about whether or not this would work; only Indigo remained confident.
"Trust me," She told them. "That bitch is going to think twice before she messes with us again." Indigo climbed up into the Gundam Venus and punched in the commands. "Are you coming?" She called. Helen sighed and climbed into the Tyrant. "Everybody ready?" She asked.
The others nodded. "Ok then, let’s get outta here." She closed the cockpit to her Gundam and ejected from the base.
Jason, Brittney and David followed.
Alexis sighed as she watched her boyfriend leave. "I’m going to miss him," She pouted. It was disappointing that she’d hardly seen him since he’d arrived. The redhead left the secret hanger and went back up into the main area of the house. Jasmine watched the girl g, and then started grumbling to herself about how she couldn’t even go and fight with the others.
"Don’t worry about it, Jazz, you’ll get your day." Seth assured her.
"Thanks Seth," Jasmine sighed, rewarding his small attempt to cheer her up. "Yeah, and then we can kick ass again." Joel smirked.
Jasmine laughed. "That’s right! The Chang twins are unbeatable!"
~~~
It took nearly twenty hours to get into position in space, and Helen was going crazy with boredom. She’d even lowered herself to watching a really bad foreign cartoon. She leaned on her hand as she and Indigo headed for the L1 cluster. They were to stop there and hide themselves until given further orders. The mobile dolls would do most of the initial fighting.
She looked at her screen and saw that they were getting close; and in two hours Jason’s group would be in position. Helen smirked, she was glad to finally have some action again.
~~~
"What’s this?" Cassius looked at her monitors and saw three Gundams heading for her base in L7. Looking more closely, she also saw that an entire fleet of mobile dolls and manned suits were heading for her L1 base.
"Well…what are they up to…?" She stroked her chin and though for a moment and then chuckled. "How pathetic." She punched in her Com Link button that connected her to her secretary. "Arrange a fleet of mobile dolls, as well as two thousand manned suits!" She commanded. "Those brats aren’t going to fool me."
~~~
"Indigo, Helen, this is Noin calling. Proceed with the attack."
Helen’s eyes shot open and she smiled. "It’s about time. OK everyone, let’s go!"
The mobile dolls launched an all-out attack on the L1 base. Helen and Indigo remained in the shadows. They had to wait until Cassius attacked to make their move.
~~
"It’s time," David said quietly. At first he wasn’t sure if the others had heard him.
"What? We can go?" Jason asked excitedly.
"That’s right, come on!" Brittney cheered. She grabbed the controls of the Hell’s Angel and dived at the base.
Jason and David followed suit.
~~
"Miss Cassius! Our L1 and L7 missiles bases are under attack."
"I know, analyse the situation!"
"There are three Gundams at our L7 base, and a fleet of mobile dolls at the L1 base What do we do? We don’t have enough suits with us to attack both."
"We won’t need to…"
"Huh?"
"Proceed to the L1 base."
"B-but miss…what about the Gundams?"
"It’s a trap you fool! They’re expecting us to go after the Gundams. They want to lure me out. There is nothing more than mobile dolls at the L1 base."
"But won’t that sacrifice L7…?"
Cassius smirked at the young soldier. "Yes, I’m afraid it will. But we must all make sacrifices in war."
The soldier was confused. "Ok…" He knew better than to argue with Cassius.
~~
There was still no word of Cassius after an hour of attacking her L1 base, and Helen was starting to get concerned. "Any word from Jason and the others?" She asked.
"Not yet," Indigo hissed as she watched the dolls attack, and meeting very little resistance.
As I on cue, a huge blast cut through the group of dolls. "What the!" Indigo gasped as she jerked her head up to see what was going on.
"Cassius is here!" Helen hissed through clenched teeth. "Noin! Cassius has arrived! Requesting permission to attack!"
"Affirmative, go ahead guys! I’m sending Joel and Seth over now."
Indigo and Helen took off their cloaking devices and began to slice through the Matatara mobile suits. Right in the center was Cassius’ personal ship.
"There she is," Helen whispered. "Let’s go for it."
~~
"Cassius! There are two Gundams headed this way!"
"What!" Cassius screamed. She ran to check the monitors herself. Sure enough, there had been two hidden Gundams within the group and they were coming after her.
"How in the…?"
Another beeping sound was heard: two more Gundams were on their way, and the three at the L7 base were leaving as well. Suddenly Cassius realised what was going on.
"Those little twerps! They tricked me!" She seethed to herself for a moment before turning to the others on the hip. "Never mind, deal with the Gundams quickly, and call for backup at the base. Hurry!"
"Y-yes ma’am!"
~~
"I think we caught her off guard!" Indigo grinned. She was getting steadily closer to Cassius’ ship. Helen was just beside her, slicing through some dolls with her scythe. But despite their steady progress, it was getting tiring fighting all these suits was getting tiring.
"Indy, I don’t think we’ll be able to break through!"
"You’re right, we’ll have to hold up until the backup gets here." Indy answered.
"Helloooooooooooo!"
"Finally!" Indigo cheered. She grinned at Seth and Joel as they joined the fight.
~~
"Where is that backup!" Cassius screamed. Her mobile suits were being destroyed too quickly.
~~
Seth pulled out his Gundam’s sword and charged at a mobile doll. He stabbed it through the middle and tossed it into a suit headed for Indigo.
"Thanks," Indigo said to him before chasing after another mobile suit.
Helen was slicing through suits like they were vegetables, and Joel was doing a good job of keeping up.
~~
Cassius was glaring at the screen in her ship; four Gundams and still no progress. She hadn’t been expecting them at all. Possibly the three at L7, but not the others!
The ship jolted violently as the final three Gundams joined the fray.
"Dammit!" She cursed, She checked the status on the backup, but they would take too long, and there probably wasn’t enough anyway; not with the current status of her fleet. Glaring at the accursed Gundams, she contemplated her options.
The ship shook again, and the alarms began to sound."
"Status, now!"
"We’ve taken a hit to the left side ma’am, our second left engine has been hit. Plus, we’re losing our oxygen fast."
Cassius hissed a few choice words before giving her orders. "Fine, transfer everyone on board onto escape pods and tell the troops to pull back."
"Ma’am…?" The young soldier was confused. Cassius never retreated.
"Just do it!"
The soldier nodded and ran to issue the orders. She grabbed something from behind her and set the timer. She put the tiny but powerful explosive on the control boards and headed for the escape pods. She cast a final, menacing glance at the Gundams, still fighting.
"I won’t forget this…" she hissed.
~~
"Look, Cassius is retreating!" Helen cried happily.
"Looks like we came just in time," Jason grinned, "It seemed like you guys were in trouble."
"We were fine," Helen growled. "We could have finished this without you with our eyes closed."
"Hn," Jason snorted.
"Come on guys," Brittney cut in. "Lets get back, we’ve got a long drive ahead of us."
"Yeah…" Indigo agreed. "Next time Cassius will be fried."
