"Why must everything go wrong?" Noin moaned as she banged her head on the table.
"Noin, please calm down," Zechs begged, "You’ll hurt the baby."
"I don’t care," She grumbled, "We’re trying to save the world here, and people are missing!"
"I’m sure Saber will show up in time…" Zechs reassured her.
"No…we can’t wait for him. Tell the rest of the kids to go without him. This may very well be the deciding battle, if he reappears I’ll send him after you.
"Alright…" Zechs sighed. He turned around and left to relay her decision.
"Yo Zechs! You find him?" Helen asked.
"No, Noin wants you all to go on without him."
Helen sighed, where could Saber have gone? And why would he leave? He’d disappeared exactly two hours before they were supposed to leave. Helen was concerned; they needed every possible person they could.
She looked down below her, where Carol was waiting on the catwalk.
"All right Carol! Noin says we’re supposed to go without him!"
Carol glanced up, looking a little disappointed, but she nodded and climbed up into her Taurus mobile suit.
She took a long, deep breath, before gripping the controls and blasting out of the hanger. This was it.
~~~
Saber looked behind him, not really sure of what he was expecting to see. He was already thousands of miles from Zimbabwe, and only a few from the Averis Rebellion camp. He almost regretted his decision to leave the Preventors, to leave…Carol. Shaking his head, his shrugged off his feelings and kept walking from the airport to the camp.
He’d done his duty to them. He’d helped finish training Carol, while still managing to avoid her. He knew that she was ready now, she learned quickly. They would be fine without him…hopefully.
~~~
"Alright guys," Sally broke the silence of the Com Link. "The base is just up ahead. Everyone know what they’re doing?"
"You bet we do, Doc." Jason answered with a smirk. "Helen, Carol, you guys remember, you’re with me."
"Yes Jason…" Helen sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Gotcha!" Carol replied enthusiastically.
"OK good, just making sure."
"Hey Doc, you sure you know what you’re doing? How long has it been since you’ve been on a mission?" Jason laughed.
Sally snorted in response.
"Show some respect," Wufei hissed. "We’re here…"
~~~
Getting in was easy, but afterwards wouldn’t be a walk in the park.
"Which way, Indy?" Seth asked of his partners for the mission. "According to the data…" Indigo said as she typed away on the small computer on her arm. The screens were displayed in a pair of special glasses.
"The dream inducer should be…that way." She pointed down the south hallway.
"Great, let’s go."
~~~
"Keep quiet, we don’t want to run into any trouble." Helen told her companions.
"Yeah," Carol agreed, "Let’s just find that Gundam and get out of here."
Jason’s normal expression had disappeared, and was replaced with a look of pure hatred. When I find that Jeff guy, I’m gonna… And to think, he had once considered him a friend. He would pay for what he’d done to Helen.
Helen led the way through the halls, keeping her gun handy.
Suddenly, there was a heavy metallic clang from behind them.
The entire group spun around to find the source of the noise. But in the center of the hallway, was only a lone pole, rolling towards them, and eventually turning and hitting the wall.
Jason looked at the item curiously, "What the…?" *whiz* Something hot zipped past his ear. He turned again, this time seeing not only one, but dozens of Matatara soldiers blocking all the exits. The three back away from them, and bumped into each other in the center of the hall.
"Helen, what do we do?" Jason growled as he raised his gun. "What do you think we do? We fight our way through!" With the, she lunged at the solider in front of her, knocking him out with the butt of her gun.
From then on it was complete chaos.
Carol nearly panicked when she saw how many soldiers they needed to get past. She forced herself to take a deep breath and concentrate. Too bad the soldiers weren’t going to allow her any time to focus. One soldier headed for her, his huge arms outstretched, ready to snap her in half. Carol quickly ducked out of the way and kicked him in the stomach, hard enough to render him useless. She breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived.
She was soon thrown back into the fight.
Helen glanced back at her sister, concerned that she might be having a hard time. They hadn’t really done anything on hand to hand combat.
But Helen nearly stopped in shock when she saw how well Carol was actually doing. She may have even been out-doing her and Jason.
Carol delivered a devastating blow to the back of the neck of the last soldier standing. As he fell, Helen and Jason looked at her in shock.
"What?"
"Carol, you can fight?!" Helen gawked.
Carol just laughed, "Well of course I can, I did grow up as an orphan in New York, you know."
Helen didn’t realize just how wide her eyes were until Jason pointed it out and laughed. Shrugging it off, Helen quickly went back to work. "Come on guys, we don’t have time to goof around.
Jason just chuckled as he hurried after her.
~~~
"Tell me again how we got stuck working with our parents?" Jasmine whispered to her twin as they followed slowly after Wufei and Sally.
Joel shrugged, "I don’t know, but I don’t like it any more than you do." He grumbled.
"Hurry up, both of you!" Sally ordered. The couple was already far ahead of their children.
"Well, the Changs. How lovely of you to stop by."
The four Changs stopped where they were and looked around.
"Who’s there?" Sally demanded.
"I know," Wufei growled. "Come out, woman! Come and face us!"
A hollow laugh echoed through the cold metal halls, followed by soft footsteps.
At first it sounded like they were behind them, but then a figure appeared just ahead of them. Out of the darkness emerged the very person they were searching for: Cassius Matatara.
"You…" Sally growled, raising her gun.
"Now, now, Sally, let’s not get too excited. It’s not good for someone of your age."
Sally narrowed her eyes at the young woman but said nothing.
Cassius smirked and took another step forward.
"And you brought your adorable husband."
"Did she just say what I think she said?" Joel muttered.
Cassius didn’t seem to have heard Joel; she just kept advancing towards Wufei. She stopped right in front of him and met his deadly glare. "Fei, darling, you don’t look happy to see me," She pouted.
"What do you want, woman?"
She laughed, "You are so cute, I could kiss you! In fact…"
"Hey! He’s my husband!" Sally cut in, "Get your own."
Cassius snapped her head to the left and glared at the older woman. "Why I intend to. And no one interrupts me while I’m talking." She swung wildly at Sally and caught her in the jaw. Sally stumbled back and glared. She started to move forward again, but Wufei stopped her.
"Stay back, woman, I can handle this myself."
Sally grudgingly obliged. Damn him and his stupid pride. She thought as she watched the following events.
"Now, as I was saying," Cassius turned back to Wufei and quickly grabbed him, pressing her lips against his.
Wufei took a step back in shock, and his eyes widened. He hadn’t actually believed that she was serious!
Wufei regained his composure quickly and pushed her back. Embarrassed, and with his pride wounded, he was even more upset than he’d ever been.
Joel and Jasmine just stood behind them, in complete and total shock.
"Please tell me I did not just see that," Jasmine said as her mouth fell open.
As Cassius was sent tumbling backwards, Sally came out of nowhere and lunged at her. "How dare you even touch MY husband!" She cried.
Cassius reacted quickly and whipped out her gun and fired.
Sally seemingly stopped in mud-air and gagged, her eyes widening into perfect circles.
"Sally!" Wufei cried as he ran to catch her as she fell. Cassius stood up and started to laugh.
Wufei looked up at her and glared for all he was worth. Cassius just bowed and disappeared as quickly as she had come.
"Mom…!" Jasmine gasped, she ran to her mother’s side, with Joel close behind.
"Both of you, get her back to the base as quickly as you can, she needs immediate medical attention!"
"What about you?" Joel asked.
"I’m going after Cassius."
~~~
"Is this it?" Seth asked as he inspected the heavy door and it’s many locks.
"Looks that way," Indigo replied. She connected her small computer into the locking mechanism. David crouched beside her and also began working on the locks.
"You cover us, Seth," He told the other teen. Seth nodded and drew his gun, keeping a close eye on the halls for enemies.
It took Indy and David only ten minutes to finish working on the locks. "Whoa, you guys are good," Seth praised. He grinned as he followed them into the room.
"Wow…check it out," Indigo gasped as she looked around. The room was dark and cold, with a long control board on the far wall. A huge monitor occupied the wall space, and a lone chair sat in front of it all.
"Is this our dream machine?" David questioned.
"Looks that way," Indy replied, "Let’s figure out how this thing works."
She sat down in the chair and began typing furiously.
"You think we could really use this against Cassius?"
"Most likely," Indigo answered without looking up. "She’s already unstable as it is. By using this thing against her, it’s likely she’ll suffer some sort of breakdown. All we need to do is come up with something that will trigger it."
"Cool," Seth knelt next to her and examined the controls. David took up the task of watching the door.
"Uh guys…" He started, "Maybe you should just take what you need and study it later."
"What are you talking about David?" Indy snorted, "We can’t guarantee we’ll even be able to put this back together properly, and also, how would we know what we need?"
"Well then I suggest you stop for a minute and give me a hand," He said shakily.
Now Indy and Seth did look up. "Huh?"
David drew his gun and pointed it out the doorway. "We’ve got company," He fired suddenly as a flood of Matatara soldiers swarmed in. They must have tripped a silent alarm when they broke the locks.
"Shit," Seth cursed. He too drew his weapon and fired into the mass. "Keep going Indy, we need that…thing!"
Indigo rolled her eyes and kept working. If she could just find the mainframe, she could take it and get the hell outta there.
It was incredible how many soldiers were coming in after them. Seth and David struggled to keep them at bay. David fired, almost blindly, yet still rendering many soldiers helpless. Seth had lost use for his gun, and was simply using his hands. The soldiers had gotten too close to him already.
"We need to get them out of here!" David cried. "Push them back, we’ll get the doors closed!" Seth replied. He smashed his elbow into one of the soldiers’ faces and advanced towards them. David followed suit, and pushed the soldiers back and then lunged for the door lock. "Get them out, Seth!" David yelled at his friend from across the room.
"We’re never going to get all of them, just close the door; we’ll finish off the ones who get stuck inside.
David nodded and began working with the wires for the lock. Finally, he managed to find the right ones and he lightly touched them together. They sparked, and then the doors slid closed. The shocked soldiers jumped back and out of the way of the large doors. One, however, was too slow, and got his hand stuck in between.
David winced as the man screamed and his arm popped and fell to the ground, blood still draining from the flesh.
"I think I’m gonna be sick," David groaned as he slapped a hand over his mouth.
"No time," Seth grunted, quickly reloading his gun and ducking out of the way of a few stray bullets. Five soldiers still remained inside, and they were determined not to let the three Gundam pilots get away.
Too bad the Gundam pilots, young as they were, were still more than a match for the poorly trained, overconfident Matatara soldiers.
In three minutes flat, they were all down.
"Almost done over there Indy?" Seth looked up at the girl and saw that she was taking apart the control panel.
"Yeah, almost," She answered. It seemed that she was completely oblivious to the battle that had just taken place. Her head was buried deep in the controls as she dug through the wires.
Seth laughed as he shook his head and walked over to help her.
"Look at this," Indigo said to him, "This here is what we want, I just need to get it out without breaking it. Give me a hand." Seth sighed and looked into the mess of wires, wondering what the heck she was talking about.
"Um, Dave? You help Indy. Just hurry up. They’re probably getting backup out there."
"You can’t rush this, Seth!" Indigo complained, still, she tried to pick up the pace and work faster.
~~~
"Whoa! There it is!" Carol gasped as they found their way into the hanger. "The Gundam!" Helen grinned. "Come on, let’s grab it and get outta here."
"I’ll second that," Jason smirked. He headed across the hanger towards the Hell’s Angel.
"I wouldn’t take another step if I were you." A cold, female voice echoed of the walls of the hanger.
Jason spun around and gawked at what he saw. "Bri-Bri-Brittney?!"
Helen and Carol also let their jaws dropped to the floor. "What the hell is she doing here?!" Helen hissed.
"Well, thank you for the warm greeting." Brittney muttered sarcastically. "But what else could you expect from the Gundam brats?"
"What are you talking about Brittney? What are you doing here?" Jason asked.
"Isn’t it obvious? I’m here to kill you…all of you."
"Wha…"
"Don’t look so surprised, Jason!" Brittney spat. "After what you did to me, this was the only reasonable choice. And my mother too, she had nothing to do with it! And you went and killed her." She laughed bitterly. "It would seem you had as all fooled. I really thought you were above that…"
"WHAT! Brittney, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I had nothing to do with your mother’s disappearance…"
"Keep the bullshit to yourself, Jason." Brittney hissed. Helen watched the exchange with fury, how could Brittney turn on them? After all they’d done for her too!
Helen couldn’t take it anymore. She grabbed her gun and ran for Brittney. That bitch was going down, if it was the last thing she did, Brittney would pay.
Helen got so close that she could smell Brittney’s sweat before something stopped her. It was a gun, the cold barrel pressing into her side.
"Drop it sweetheart, I don’t want to have to tarnish such a pretty little thing like yourself."
Helen instantly went stiff. She knew that voice, "Jeff…" She gasped, trying not to let her fear sound in her voice.
The black teen chuckled as he reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of Helen’s face. She shuddered but forced herself to look at him. She couldn’t show weakness now. "Don’t worry baby," Jeff laughed, "I think I’m done with you. Come on," He cocked his gun and led her over to Brittney.
Helen reluctantly obliged. She stopped right in front of the auburn haired girl and glared at her.
"Go ahead Brittney," Jeff offered. "She’s all yours."
Brittney paused before raised her gun and aiming it, point blank, between Helen’s eyes. Helen never flinched. She started to squeeze the trigger, but stopped again.
"What are you waiting for Brittney? DO IT!" Jeff snapped.
"Yeah Brittney, do it," Helen taunted evenly. "Just go on and kill me." He throat was dry with fear.
"Helen!" Jason cried. "He tried to make a move, but he was quieted by Jeff, who shot a stray bullet at his feet. "One move, Yuy, and I’ll kill all three of you. Just keep quiet, we only want Maxwell."
"Then you’ll have to take me too!"
"Huh?" Jeff hardly had time to finish his sound of confusion before Brittney fell to the ground in a heap, a bump forming on her head. She was out cold.
"Brit…" He jumped back when a cold metal blade made contact with his throat.
"I don’t know who the hell you are…" Carol hissed as she advanced on Jeff, keeping her dagger pressed tightly against his throat, "But you are not going to get away with whatever you did to my sister."
Jeff smirked, "Are you going to kill me, kid? That’s pretty funny, considering you’re knee high to a pew."
Carol snorted, "Did you think that up all by yourself?"
As Carol kept Jeff busy, Jason ran to Helen and caught her as her knees gave way. "I didn’t think I’d freak out if I saw him again, I was prepared for it. I guess I was wrong, huh?" Helen admitted with a laugh.
Jeff was slowly being back up against the rail of the catwalk.
"What did you do to her anyway?" Carol questioned. "Why is she so afraid of you?"
"Afraid? Helen? Are you sure?" Jeff chuckled.
"Tell me!" She pushed the dagger tighter against his throat. "Hey, she was a great piece of ass," Jeff said defensively with a laugh. Carol’s eyes widened. "Y-you…you didn’t!"
"Hell yeah I did, baby, and I’d do it again!"
Carol’s eyes narrowed in rage. "YOU BASTARD!" She lunged at him and spun the dagger in her hands, then expertly speared him thorough the throat.
Jeff gagged and stumbled back. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground in a pool of his own blood.
"C-Carol…?" Helen gasped. Her sister was panting for breath, but seemed unperturbed at the fact that she had just brutally killed someone in cold blood. It didn’t seem possible; and to think, she’d always thought of Carol as impossibly nice.
"How in the…?" Jason gawked,
Carol smiled as she replaced her trusty dagger back in its sheath. "I got it when I was a kid, never leave home without it." She smiled.
"D-did you just…kill him…" Helen asked, still confused at what she had just witnessed.
Carol looked down at Jeff’s lifeless body, "Yeah, I guess I did. Don’t worry Helen, he can’t hurt you anymore."
Now regret did wash over Carol’s features, and Helen quickly ran to her.
"H-how did you know he hurt me?"
"I could see how scared you were Helen, you could hardly move!"
"How is that possible? I thought I was hiding it pretty well."
"You were but…well…call it sister’s intuition, I guess." Carol and Helen both laughed.
"Come on, let’s get out of here." Helen got up and offered her hand to her younger sister. Carol gladly accepted it and they headed out of the hanger together. "It ain’t over yet, though," Helen warned.
"I know…"
"Hey! Guys!" Jason called after them, "What about her?" He looked down at where unconscious Brittney once lay. "Huh…?" But she was already gone.
"Come on," Helen sighed, "Call the other’s and let’s get the hell outta here."
~~~
Guilt consumed Saber as he sat back in his tent at the Averis base camp. Tech and Swift agreed to let him rest a while before putting him back to work. They could see he was in a bad mood, although neither of them could figure out why. Soon however, they both got consumed with their own work and left him alone to ponder to himself.
He knew that right then the Gundam pilots were probably struggling with the Matatara. He should have been there to help them, to help…her.
He grumbled and sat up and began to meditate, trying to get her out of his mind. But that little blonde-haired girl wouldn’t stay out of his mind.
He wanted to go over and help her. He needed to help her. What if they…she, was in trouble? Could he save her?
That got him to thinking; perhaps it wasn’t his feelings for Carol but his failure to acknowledge them that put him through such turmoil. He scratched his head thoughtfully and finally stood up and climbed rather clumsily out of the tent.
He knew what he needed to do. It was Averis’s purpose to protect the peace in the way that they saw fit. And if protecting the peace meant protecting his friends…and Carol, then that was what he was going to do.
He found the couple in the main tent, looking over a pile of star maps and plans. He cleared his throat and waited for them to realize he was there.
"Yes, Saber?" Swift asked irritably, "It had better be important, we’re pretty busy if you can’t tell."
"I’m sorry, but I have a request."
"Yeah, what is it Saber?" Tech asked cheerfully, contrasting his wife’s dark mood.
Saber took a deep breath and quickly rattled off his request.
Tech and Swift both looked at each other and exchanged a glance. After a moment, they leaned in together and whispered to each other.
Saber waited uncomfortably until they were finished.
"Very well Saber," Swift sighed finally as she stood up straight. "But you realize we cannot go with you. We have other things to take care of."
"Of course, thank you very much, Swift." Saber bowed and retreated quickly before they could change their minds.
