Traitor

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing.

Traitor

Quincy007

They had been investigating the current ‘leak’ in the Preventer database, but they had come up dry until an hour ago.

“Somebody is using the system, confirming location.” Trowa said from the monitor, “Office level 3 section 5.”

“Got’cha. You coming?” Duo’s voice crackled through the comm. system.

“Of course. I‘ll meet you at level 3 section 4.” Trowa slid out of his seat and was gone, not seen by the cameras nor heard.

Duo was waiting there. His give and take/happy go lucky manner seemed dimmed in dark offices. Maybe it was the seriousness of the situation, or perhaps it was how he was truly feeling Trowa fell out of the shadows to stand next to him.

Duo didn’t look surprised. Trowa could appear from nothing just as well (if not better) than Heero, “Heero and Quatre are in their Gundams ready if they make a break or bring in reinforcements.”

“Then lets go. If Wufei wanted to be here, he would have been.”

They burst in the door, Pistols ready. Trowa in the classic shooters stance and Duo trying to be an action movie star.

“I’ll take left, you take right.” Trowa whispered and moved to the left of the office.

Duo just went to right, like he had a choice. He couldn’t wait to get this bastard, they had lost three agents to botched missions because of the leak, and it was time to pay them back in spades.

He saw hunched figure over a computer, “Trowa I got him. Freeze! Hands up!”

The figure was, to Duo’s surprise, a woman. At least his height, with rich blond hair hidden under a hat. Dressed in a Blue Telecommunications repairmen outfit she looked very suspicious.

“You are under arrest. Right to remain silent…” Duo rattled off the words not really caring. He was just waiting for this woman to make a wrong move.

Trowa was there a few seconds later. His gun wasn’t raised, nor was he moving forward to apprehend her. “Trowa? What the hell are you doing? Cuff her so I can go home!”

Trowa didn’t move he just stared. The woman nodded, “Hello Nanashi.”

“Midii?”

Duo saw her change her stance, he pushed his gun forward, “Hey! Don’t move!”

He was to late. She had dropped a flash bang grenade, leaving Duo and Trowa amongst a blinding light. Both were moving for the open window. “What the hell was that?” Duo asked as they saw her running across the parking lot.

“…” Trowa leapt from the window pulling himself into a somersault. He landed at a good run. Duo was busting out of the main door a few feet behind.

Midii looked back at her two assailants, Nanashi and his partner. She wouldn’t make it to the helicopter if he kept up that pace. Why was he following her?

The braided one was yelling, “Stop! I’m gonna make you pay for making me run!”

She found herself blocked into a corner she could climb up the fire escape if she had more time. Nanashi had caught up to her and wasn’t aiming his gun, but walking forward.

The Braided one was panting as he came up close behind. “Stop. You gave me a good run lady, but now…”

She was desperate, she jumped for the fire escape. The loud rattle of gunfire filled the small ally she trapped herself in. She looked when it stopped. Nanashi held a smoking gun and the other one was bleeding from his gun arm and unconscious.

She didn’t ask, she just ran. He was helping her escape, why? He was running off in the other direction. Maybe to get an ambulance for his partner.

Juan Jochasta normally didn’t do this kind of work. He was a runner, one of the best. He got client A to point B for money, but he never knew the mess he was getting into with this girl.

“You’re late.”

“Sue me, the 'venters caught on to me. I had to take a long cut.”

Juan powered up the rotors on the helicopter. This was going to be a ride he never forgot. They lifted off and where about three miles out of town when the gunfire began.

He saw the shape that was plastered on every newscast during the wars. A gundam. Wing Zero. And Sandrock. “Stop! We want your live cargo!”

“Sorry Toots. I can’t out maneuver a gundam.” He apologized to his client.

“You’re getting paid handsomely. I suggest you try.”

Heero almost thought it would work. But the woman said something and the copter took off. He cut off their path with a volley from his shoulder machine cannons. He drew a beam saber and was going to slice the tail rotor.

A barrage of gunfire he hadn’t experienced in a long time knocked Zero back. Huge shells impacted on the Zero frame. “Quatre!”

“Its Heavyarms!”

“What?”

It was indeed Heavyarms, using one of his Vulcan cannons. Quatre tried to strike at the Copter, but Trowa stuck his free arm in the way.

“Trowa? What are you doing?” Quatre asked?

“Following Heero’s advice.”

Heero used his wings as a shield to block the gunfire, as he swung his beam saber at the speedy, but defenseless helicopter.

He struck home, cleanly slicing the tail rotor off sending it careening out of control. If the pilot was worth his salt he would survive.

Heavy arms twisted Sandrock’s arms around and stabbed the mobile suit with its own blades. He fired his seeker missiles into Zero, knocking him down. The suit gracefully caught the spinning aircraft and fired its escape jets.

Heero wiped the blood from his eyes. And tried to pick up the suit. “Why can’t we move?”

“Quatre?”

“I’m…I’m okay. He ran the blades through the waist connections. The suit is paralyzed, but it won’t take long to fix.”

“I can repair Zero in two days.”

“He could have wrecked the suits far more, yet he did not. Why?”

“His mission was not to hurt us.”

“What advice did you give him?”

Heero pondered on everything he had said to Trowa, the most memorable, being in the truck after that confrontation with Sylvia Noventa. “Act on your emotions. His heart told him to do this.”

Altron and Tallgeese appeared from the sky. “Women. They tear apart the strongest friendships. They make men break their strongest blood oaths.”

“Trowa shot Duo. Not lethal, but he still shot him. He also called the ambulance for him too. So Duo will be fine in a few days.” Milliardo said.

“Can we track him?” Quatre asked.

“No. He disabled the tracking gear.”

Tallgeese Picked up Wing Zero. Heero was sitting inside with his eyes closed. “Zero, what do you think about this?”

“Duo said that she called him Nanashi.”

Heero frowned. “No-name.”

“So before operation Meteor.” Quatre said, “I’m going to ask Catherine.”

“What else did Duo say?” Heero asked

“Her name is Midii, or at least that is the name Trowa called her.”

“I’ll check that out.” Heero said.

“Which leaves us with what?” Wufei asked

“Track HeavyArms. Both of you know how hard it is to maintain a mobile suit.”

Point B turned out to be a remote airstrip near the country border. Trowa set down the helicopter and kneeled HeavyArms. He opened the hatch and got out.

“Midii!”

She looked at him like he had sworn allegiance to Trieze Khushrenada, “What the hell was that?”

“It was what I wanted to do. My brain told me no, but my heart said, save her.”

“Oh, man…” she sighed. Now, of all times, he finds her and is trying to be forgiving.

“They call me Trowa now. Trowa Barton.”

“Holy sweet mother O’Grady. Trowa Barton? How did you get the name of Dekim’s son?”

“Doctor H’s assistant killed him when he discovered the true operation Meteor. I saw this, and well…I was a little insecure about not having a name, so I took his, and his gundam.”

Juan looked at the reunited couple, which was still in the ‘deny it’ stage, “Look lady, am I getting paid or not?”

Midii reached into the wreaked Helicopter and tossed him a duffle bag, “5 million cash.”

He mock saluted and ran off to hi-jack a bus or something. Trowa didn’t say anything. “Big job?”

“You have no idea, and you being here kind of screws my chances of completing it.”

“You never let me get in the way before.”

She didn’t say anything at first, “That’s cold Nanashi. Even for you.”

“Sorry. I’m a bitter person. Now, do you have a ride, or is stealing one part of your grand scheme?”

“Steal. Everybody here is insured.”

“Then lets go. We’ll need a large carrier to take HeavyArms”

“I’m not taking you!”

“I saved your life, probably in exchange for my career, I got involved and I’m staying involved, if not just to get you out of whatever badness you are into.”

“Fine.”

Stealing carriers has never been hard. Trowa was an expert at it by now. They sat back into the chairs as Trowa lifted it off the ground. “Where to Midii?”

“I’ll enter coordinates into the auto pilot thank you.”

“You don’t know either?”

“No.” She pulled a diskette and slid it into the Nav data computer, “Estimated time: 5 hours.”

“I’m going to secure HeavyArms.”

She watched him go. It reminded her of that day so many years ago. Him walking out. The autopilot could watch the ship. “I’ll help.”

He didn’t say no, but he didn’t say yes either. She followed him down to the hold. Securing the MS was a simple task. Throw some straps and tighten. They were done in an hour. Leaving four hours to do nothing.

He sat in the cockpit of Heavyarms checking the Preventer radio reports. Until they changed the encryption he could see how his escape was faring. Midii sat outside watching. And listening.

“You really didn’t plan this?”

“No. Had we been working together I would have put a deathblow on Duo and they would have sent mobile dolls for me to take out. More believable when I kill.”

“Oh. Trowa…”

He got out of the suit, “Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m the emotionless bastard. It took me years to forgive you in my mind. I only understood later when Cathy tried to stop Quatre from bringing me back to the war. The bond of family runs deep and strong.”

“You have family?”

“A sister. Coincidence we met really. How is yours?”

“My father and two of my brothers are dead. My third brother, the youngest, disowned me for doing my job.”

“Sorry, all for naught then.”

“I guess. Na-Trowa, I don’t know what to say really, you left behind a career, family, for me? They might kill you when we get to our destination.”

“Its not to late to escape. I can protect you.”

“I don’t doubt it Trowa.” She brushed her hands down his muscled arms, “But…I’m doing it again. I’m being a traitor to my employer. I’m supposed to assassinate the leader of this rebel faction, Old Trieze faction zealots, after completing my mission for them.”

“I see. Can I help?”

“You’re here. You might as well. But they might kill you.”

“I’ve done this before. I still have my records in OZ’s database, I was picked by Lady Une to pilot the Vayate.”

“What about your Gundam?”

“She’ll be our Ace in the hole.”

She was happy that Trowa was going to help her, but it still didn’t add up, “Aren’t you angry at me? I’ve done lots of bad things.”

“So have I. I’m not clean enough to claim higher morale standing. Besides, I’d take on Death herself to stay next to you. I left you once, not again.”

“Trowa…” she couldn’t look at him. He didn’t seem to react at all, until he grabbed her and pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her.

“I’m not going to let anyone do it. Not These bastards, Not Heero, Not Lady Une, Not even Cathy. Though I’d work out a compromise with her.”

“Right.” She just took comfort in his arms. So strong yet gentle, he still had that grace.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about Quatre. Trowa doesn’t speak of his past much. Least of all to me. I never recall him speaking of a Midii.”

“Oh, well thanks anyway.” Quatre looked around the trailer for signs of Trowa being unhappy or discontent. But he wasn’t really good at that stuff.

“Trowa did something again, didn’t he?” her voice was more concerned than angry.”

“We were investigating a leak in the database at the Preventer HQ, and Duo and Trowa found a woman doing the hacking, Trowa aided her escape to the point of attacking Heero and me in our Gundams.”

“He attacked you for over a girl? Oh…” she glanced off into the wall.

“What is it Catherine?” Quatre thought it looked like she knew something.

“He has nightmares you know.” She looked at Quatre, who nodded, they all did, it was part of their choice to be a pilot Catherine continued, “Sometimes he’ll talk about them, even though I’d rather not hear them it helps.”

Quatre knew this. He always felt like a fool though for telling one of his sisters or Rasid about them.

“So, it was a few weeks ago, I heard him tossing and turning about. By the time I got there he was up. He dismissed it as unimportant, but he drew these. He stopped having as many nightmares after that.” She showed Quatre a spiral bound drawing pad. It was filled with detailed sketches of Heavyarms in combat, usually alone or by Sandrock. The sketches got more detailed as he went deeper in the book, until he found a drawing of a girl, no more than ten, crying. She was frozen in time like she was saying something. He flipped the page to the back and found some dialog next to a quick drawing of a cross on a chain.

“Because we’re the same.” Quatre read aloud.

“I don’t know why, but when he put this down on paper he was able to rest. I thought maybe he was expelling them. Now I think it’s more of a way of telling the person who might find it about his past or what’s bothering him.”

“We all deal with our pain in different ways. I usually try to talk to someone, but Trowa was never a great conversationalist. He would keep stuff like this inside until it drove him mad, so he put it down on paper, where it remained as silent as him.”

“I hope he is happy, wherever he is.” Catherine whispered.

Heero resisted the urge to throw the laptop across the room. He was a soldier, he was in control. Nothing. It was as if she had appeared out of thin air. Of course leaving no time at all to seduce Trowa.

“I’ve tried everything I know. No person under known Alliance, Federation, OZ, White Fang, has personnel named Midii.” he spoke to nobody in particular.

He didn’t even have a picture to go on. She truly seemed to come out of nowhere. But where can people just appear?

“Colonies.” It hit Heero like a sack of bricks. When you moved from Earth to a colony or vice versa, you went through a whole registration process to get the proper identification papers. If you had superior enough skills you could just create a person. Or a new identity.

Heero called up the registry of persons coming to earth from all colonies in the past 8 months. The leak started 4 months ago, best to be safe.

“Eight million?” wow. There was a lot of transit going on.

“Separate by sex. Display female.”

The number knocked down to three million, Heero spent a second on why there were so many more men in space. He dismissed it as unimportant.

“I can’t have Duo look at three million names and pictures.” Hrm…Narrow it down…

“Age: 18-20”

He smiled as the number dropped in half. The average age of a person moving to or from a colony is about 25. More…

He looked at the description Duo gave him. He fed the data into the computer. “Ten? Only ten match this description?”

Heero gave a little victory chuckle and printed out the names and pictures. He needed to see Duo.

“And this girl, you say she is a spy? Came in and knocked me off the ramp. A few seconds later the Carrier taxied out, and loaded the Gundam on. I didn’t see the pilot.”

Milliardo sighed. Obviously this was were Trowa and the girl had fled too. The damage was negligible though. No one saw them together, but his Gundam had been loaded onto the carrier.

He looked at Wufei, who was looking at the carriers that weren’t stolen. “What is it Wufei?”

“Why did they take the model 456-J? These other ones were fueled, serviced, and alone. They waited for about an hour while this one was serviced. Therefore, they needed a special feature of that carrier.”

“A pre-war cargo special?”

He nodded and pulled out some paper, “I pulled the specs on that particular ship, it had the most fuel-efficient engines, propellant wise, not a lot of exhaust, and its transponder was the modular kid, easy to take out. And the fuel capacity was about two times that of any of these other ones.”

Milliardo felt the answer hit him like a slap to the face. He booted up his laptop and opened the Trip planner. “With their fuel, how far could they go?”

“A maximum of 12,000 miles. Empty. So add the weight of Heavyarms…10,500 miles.”

“Suckers aren’t light are they?”

“No, but HeavyArms used some of its ammunition. I had to assume it was empty.”

“So they could be…almost anywhere.”

“Do you think Trowa powered down his comm.?”

“He might want to see how close we are.”

“But we have the frequency. If we bounce that off a satellite…”

The pilot of Tallgeese smiled, “We can find out his location.”

“The location of Heavyarms. I don’t doubt Trowa would abandon it, but he might hide it. The trick will only work once unless he isn’t paying attention.”

“Should we wait longer?”

“I’ll set up a good link that won’t be very noticeable, bounce it back around a few satellites, maybe hide it in our report, due in an hour.”

“One, hour? I can do that.”

Trowa looked out the plane window. They were over the ocean, 25 minutes from their target location. He looked back down at Midii, who had fallen asleep in his arms, “Hey, Babe.”

“Ugh…Nanashi?” she woke up slowly. Blinking a few times she slowly stood up, “Sorry, Trowa.”

“It doesn’t really bother me. Its my third name almost.”

“Your second being?” She moved for the cockpit.

“Triton Bloom. That’s my birth name, but I just can’t let go of Trowa. I like it to much.”

“Oh. Three names?”

“I’m still better off than Lady Une, she had two personalities.” Trowa initiated the underwater seals on HeavyArms’s guns, etc. He set the computer to activate on his signal and home in on it. Sealing the cockpit, he turned back to Midii, “You marking this location?”

“We’ll know where she hits don’t worry.” She smiled at his protectiveness of the gundam.

They let the suit out of the hold, fifteen minutes away from rendezvous. Trowa got a little tense, watching HeavyArms fall into the ocean. Noticing this, Midii held his hand, “She’ll be okay Trowa. But, just how important is that suit?”

“It has saved my life, the lives of others, gave me a name, and led me to you.”

“Never thought of it like that.”

“I really like that suit, but I try not to get to close, like Wufei, or Quatre, bless his heart, He calls his Gundam his friend. I believe it.”

“You gave yours a gender.”

“Like a man could cause so much chaos and destruction?” He smirked at his own joke.

“That’s mean.”

“It was a joke.”

“A mean joke.” She sighed. She was trying to decide if she liked the mask better.

“Sorry. I spend a lot of time around Duo, and he talks to much for his own good.”

She nodded and turned to the instruments. “We have a call on the radio.”

Trowa hit the comm. switch not really sure what to expect. He saw a tall muscular man with a brown beard in a worn OZ uniform. “Who the bloody hell are you?”

“Trowa Barton. Pilot. OZ identification number 45087.”

“I see, where is Midii?”

She spoke from her seat, “Here General. I got busted at the last minute and pilot Barton bailed me out.”

“So you have it?”

“I wouldn’t be returning without it.”

“Excellent. I look forward to our meeting. Land at the coordinates I’m sending. Out.”

Trowa asked if she could land the ship, she nodded, not very well, but she could. He didn’t bring it up after that, he must not have wanted to offend her.

The landing was a little rough for Trowa’s standards, but he was a landing snob. He didn’t even land to his liking.

He let Midii go out first, playing the part of a defeated, yet still fighting, soldier.

“Ms. Une, how pleasant of you to finally join us.” A slimy voice oozed out from the group of soldiers meeting them.

“Dravin. I wish I could say it’s a pleasure to see you again, but I hate you.”

“You should watch your mouth, missy. We still have half your fee.”

“You could be a gentleman.” Trowa said. He took a protective step towards Midii.

“You were the pilot of the Vayate. I heard you were killed by a Gundam.”

“I lost a fight to Wing Zero, yes. I didn’t die, I drifted in space until a traveling space cruiser picked me up. I was in a coma for several weeks, and when I woke up the war was over, we lost.”

“Right. You going to try to pick up your commission?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe I’ll let the general talk to you.”

“Maybe? The man is obviously a superb pilot. And he saved my favorite spy.” General Verskoff walked up.

“Special Lt. Dravin I thought I told you to bring them to me right away.”

“I was…checking them for dangerous weapons, bought loyalty isn’t any good.”

“You are just spiteful after the trashing she gave you last time!” He let out a laugh.

Midii saw that look on Dravin and took a step back towards to Trowa. He hated being made a fool of. “Perhaps we should take this conversation inside and your troops can destroy the carrier. People are looking for it.”

“Hrmm…Yes…Dravin get the mobile suit squad B out for target practice.”

“Sir!” He saluted and left.

Trowa saw a look of pure hatred in his eyes. He also saw some instability that he could liken to a Zero flashback. He could be trouble.

The General led us to an office where he had Trowa sit outside. Almost objecting, but he remembered his role, even though leaving her alone wasn’t an option is his mind.

Quatre and Heero were letting Duo know what was up, “He’s known of her for at least 10 years. They met when they were ten, I think.” He showed them the sketchbook.

“If I knew Trowa could draw this well I would have imagined him doing something with it.”

Heero looked at the horrid detail of some of the drawings, While Quatre explained “Duo, can recite the ABC’s for me right now, correct?”

“Yea.” He sounded amused.

“Why?”

“They’ve been drilled into my brain since I was very young.”

“Exactly. Trowa can draw this scene this well, because he sees it every time he tries to sleep. After a few months I wouldn’t be surprised if he could recall every line on this sheet of paper with a startling accuracy.”

“Oh.”

Heero looked at the picture of Midii, and frowned. He grabbed the stack of pictures he printed out and started flipping through them.

“Duo, is this her?” He showed him a picture.

“Yes. You found a picture?”

“Yup. Her first name is Midii, and her last name would be…for kicks he checked the name on the forms. “Une. Midii Une. She didn’t even lie about her name on the pass.”

“So, now that we know who she is and what she looks like, what do we do?”

Heero looked at the window, wishing he was somewhere else, “Find her connection to Trowa. They are presumably the same age, and from his past. Start with local mercenary groups around AC 190 who are now non-existent. Trowa wouldn’t leave a group unless it disbanded or he was forced out.”

Quatre nodded. If he was doing that, what was Heero going to do?

“Have a seat pilot Barton.”

“Yes, sir.” Trowa sat down. Checking the room for escape routes he saw a huge picture window. All to easy.

“First, I saw the way you stood up to Dravin back there, not that he doesn’t need a good ass-kicking, I was just more fascinated by the fact that you began to place yourself between Ms. Une and him.”

“I’m a soldier, it’s my duty to protect civilians.”

“Then she took a step towards you later. I want you to stay away from her, she is an expert manipulator, who will use anyone to get her way and then discard them.”

“I told her that I would protect her, as it is my duty to help OZ regain its former glory.”

“True, but its been my experience that she isn’t sugar and spice.”

“Warning taken sir.”

“Excellent. Now, you were picked to pilot the Vayate Mobile Suit by Lady Une?”

“Yes.”

“So you flew tandem with a gundam pilot?”

“The pilot of 01, Heero Yuy, as he is called now.”

“I see…well, we don’t have anything as fancy as a Vayate, but we do have Leos, Aires, and a few Taurus suits.”

“No Virgos?”

“No, they were all destroyed as was their construction satellites.”

“I can pilot a Leo the best of all those, my air combat skill are not up to snuff.”

“So you are interested in picking up a commission?”

“I plan to fulfill my contract with OZ that I began years ago.”

The general sighed, “That’s the problem. We have few resources and fighting the Preventers, who have the Gundams, is futile. We should be letting go of our past and moving on with our lives.”

“Sir?” This was unexpected.

“My troops aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree, they can’t fit in anywhere except the old military style. The Preventers require intelligent fresh out of college people. Standards are too high for some, and they would never be able to start a new life. This is my attempt to save them. You however, are an intelligent individual. You had a life but you cast it aside to return to OZ, or perhaps to follow Ms. Une around, which denotes to me an unintelligent act. You might better serve me not as a pilot, but perhaps as a teacher, or someone who can show these misguided souls that the way of the old world isn’t going to work.”

“I really can’t say I’m qualified to do that sir, and what of the few loyalists who actually believe you will strike against the ESUN?”

“If the hardliners knew, they would have me killed, and my second in command would take over.”

“Who is that?”

“Special Lt. Dravin, He understands my wishes as well as I do, so I’m not worried about a coup d'état.”

That is where he is wrong, and that is who is signing Midii’s check. Perhaps he should not let him die, or perhaps Dravin should meet with an untimely end, “Yes, sir. Perhaps I can do both. I can lead the life of a Leo pilot, and tell the others of things they could do with their skills, but I can already see you are a commander who inspires loyalty in his troops. It will not be easy.”

“They will not leave, but when they get the idea of something they can accomplish outside of military life, they will accept it when I disband our little group.”

“Sir, I will try to fulfill my mission inside its parameters.”

Midii sat in front of her laptop checking the jobs online. There wasn’t much need for espionage in this new peace oriented world, so jobs were often fought and squabbled over. “Oooh. Industrial espionage on Winner Ind. What’s it paying?”

She heard the E-mail arrival notice and checked it out, from Trowa how did he get this address?

Midii

From information presented to me, I think we should look at your employer for the secondary mission objective; it may lead to massive bloodshed, something I would really not prefer.

Is there more than one side to the General? He seemed…non-threatening.

Gotta go-be careful,

Tro-

She thought about her true employer, and noticed that she didn’t actually know who he was, they just communicated by E-mail. Perhaps a tracer addendum was necessary.

Considering his second question she had never seen a side to the general besides the nice old guy look. Maybe he had more, but he didn’t change between talking to Herself and Trowa.

Be careful. How non-committal. At least he put something resembling a salutation at the bottom. Midii snapped an e-mail together to her employer with a tracer on it, undetectable by all current machines.

Why it was important she didn’t know, but she was willing to trust his judgment. She began to think like a soldier, in terms of military goals. Who benefits the most from the death of the commanding officer? The opposing side, but the Preventers hadn’t hired her. So the other people who benefited were the 2^nd in commands…oh.

“He has a devious mind. Trying to be a few steps ahead. I like that.”

“The only bounce we got had their location here.” Milliardo said, floating over the surface of the ocean.

“So? Dive in.”

The two suits cut their upward thrust and let gravity pull them in. Tallgeese turned on its navigating lights to see through the murky water. “I got nothing.”

“I found it. HeavyArms anyway.”

The suit was sprawled along the ground like it had fallen off the back of a truck. The underwater storage seals were intact, so Trowa intentionally dumped it here, but couldn’t take the time to stop. “There is an island chain close by, he may have wanted it as his ace-in-hole.”

“Several of the islands are owned, we should check them out.”

“In our mobile suits?”

“Why not?”

“I guess.” Milliardo didn’t really have an argument for it, “What about 03?”

“She’s not going anywhere till Trowa calls her. He will too.”

They marked the spot and engaged their vertical maneuvering jets.

“I got something, a mercenary group was hired by this group to destroy this rebel faction, where other members of the squad were working. According to battle reports that of the two Leos they encountered, one ordered the other to withdraw, which the other pilot disobeyed. This second suit slaughtered them.”

“Sounds like our boy.” Duo commented.

“There’s more. A spy placed in the group, it doesn’t say how, lead the military to the rebel faction’s base. Only two lives were spared, both had transmitters of sorts. They confirmed one as their spy, the other remained unidentified.”

Heero looked up from his work, “What became of the spy?”

“It doesn’t say. I’ll pull up the file on spy…#45602”

“They gave them numbers?” Duo yelped

“These were civilians they blackmailed into doing the jobs for them. 45602 was a young ten-year-old girl whose family was used as leverage to pull off several missions. This one being her third to last. She was assumed dead after an explosion at a base in which she was supposed to be at.”

“How much you want to bet that’s our girl?”

“No bet. So if only her and Trowa survived because of her treachery…”

“A few people might be spiteful or hateful, but our Trowa falls in love with the dame.”

“Shut-up.” Quatre muttered. He had fallen for a ‘bad guy’ too. He could see a similar situation with this girl. Her heart just wasn’t in it.

“So now what?” Duo asked Heero.

“We contact Wufei and Milliardo. They give us the location and we well…”

“Get Trowa back?” Duo sounded hopeful, in light of what Heero was thinking.

“Kill him. And her too. The government has better things to do than waste money on treason trails.”

Quatre and Duo looked at him, “Heero, don’t you feel the least bit like an @$$hole for that? He saved your life.”

“I never asked him to.”

Duo laughed. “Its okay, its just like him telling the big R he is going to kill her.”

“We shall see.” Heero muttered.

Midii looked at the e-mail trace. It went across the base to the officer’s quarters. It was routed to station 097. She pinged the station and it came back as Dravin’s office computer. She asked Trowa to meet her on the beach.

“Its Dravin.”

“I truly believe the General has no desire to fight a losing battle. Dravin, however is craving one. If he becomes commander he will try to go to war.”

“I can’t fail in my mission Trowa, I have a reputation.”

“If I kill your employer you won’t get paid, contract cancelled.”

“Do we really have to be on opposite sides again?”

Trowa frowned. He was upset, “I would rather not. In fact I would hate the idea. What can we do? I don’t really want to see him die. But I don’t want to go to war with a few green MS troops and end the battle in five minutes. Then there is the stress between you and me, which we already have enough of.”

“What are we gonna do?”

Trowa looked at the horizon. He looked for a long time. “It’s the Preventers. They found us.”

“Us? As in the base? Or Us?”

“Us. When they find the base it will be destroyed too.”

“Kind of solves our problem doesn’t it?”

“True. But they will kill us too. I have this thing about death. It’s…not me. I’m going to warn the base commander. They still won’t stand a chance, but it might but us some time.”

“How long do we have?”

“Five-ten minutes at best.”

“That’s not good.”

Trowa pulled out a remote device and pressed the solitary button, “Can you pilot a mobile suit?”

“Yes.”

“When HeavyArms gets here, get inside, Her armor will protect you better than any of the bunkers. Then help the Gundams. Its my M.O.”

“Trowa?” What was he planning to do?

“I can’t let you get hurt. Please. I owe you.”

“What makes you think that?”

“You’re my reason to live.” He took off at a run. The timer on the remote device read 10 minutes. She was just going to make it in under the wire.

The mobile suit support platform was basically a large ammo can with some fuel hook ups. Tallgeese and Altron were being refueled and the other three Gundams had been repaired. Satellite photos showed a small Mobile Suit Squadron. Cakewalk. If Trowa was there they would find him

“03 is moving.”

“Is he following his usual manner then?” Heero asked his Gundam

“Don’t attack Heavyarms until Trowa fires on you.”

Agrees went around. Nobody wanted to hurt their friend. When Milliardo gave the thumbs up the five suits blasted off.

Trowa fastened his seat restraints again. His Leo was pretty old, but it had a fair sized rifle, shield and saber set. If it went well he could abandon shortly into the fight. The Leo troops were hidden as per his orders, guerilla warfare worked with mobile suits to a certain degree. The Aeries and Tauruses were a few miles up ready for a signal.

“Sorry General.”

“Its okay, maybe we can get the non-combatants off island. My senior staff is piloting the Tauruses to help. I’ll lead the others to safety.”

“Roger.”

He expected the beam cannon shot and the mega cannon fire right away. So they avoided large groups and the buildings. If they wanted to fight they were going to have to get close.

“Strafe the skies for five seconds in three…two…one…now.”

They Leos opened fire as Wing and Tallgeese passed over. They figured their speed would counter act the Leo’s commander’s abilities. Wing hit the ground after his left Verniers took a serious dober gun hit. Tallgeese blocked most of the shots, but Trowa aimed carefully for the joints. Soon both had beam sabers ready.

Altron and Deathscythe were next but Trowa called the Air support to fall. In theory doubling their numbers. Sandrock and Heavyarms were cresting the beach. HE received a call on his private channel. “What?”

“They keep trying to hail me.” Midii said as she steered the large suit.

“Route them to me, audio only.”

“Roger.”

“Trowa? Its Quatre.”

“We’ll discuss things later. Take the lead, I’ll cover you.”

“Right.”

Trowa switched channels, “Midii? Cover Sandrock.”

“I heard.”

Trowa picked up a second rifle and fired at Deathscythe. Duo didn’t take it lightly, “You want the wrath of Death?” He swings his scythe in a predictable arc. Leaping the suit over it he elbowed the black suit and fired the rifles into the suit. It wouldn’t matter he couldn’t penetrate the hide with bullets. “Taurus units fall in on the gundams The Leos can damage the Tallgeese.”

He heard Dravin’s sniveling voice, “Yes, pilot”

Quatre didn’t understand why Trowa was holding back, he must not have a full load. He wasn’t letting the lead fly like usual. The battle was decisively one sided, even with the more advanced Tauruses entering the fight.

It was the Leo commander who impressed Quatre, his fighting was determined, like he was fighting for his heart, not for his commander. He had yet to be touched. Well, not for long. He charged his blades.

Heero wasn’t having much fun. Without his air jets he couldn’t pull off his acrobatics like usual. The wings just got in the way on the ground. He held his two sabers in an X formation as he sliced into a Taurus.

The fighting would be over in a few minutes. He could tell, Heavyarms just clicked empty. And His shoulder cannons were dry. His sabers had a half and half charge, yet there didn’t seem to be any less enemies, “Why aren’t we done yet?”

“Superior tactics. And the Leo commander took down Duo. We’ve wasted a lot of ammo on him.”

Heero checked his scanners, the Commander had a beam saber in one hand and a rifle in the other as he toyed with Wufei, toyed of all things, with a gundam. But it wasn’t arrogance, just merely there.

“He’s good. I’ll get him. Their ranks will fall apart after he goes down.”

Wing leapt into the air to come crashing down upon the suit. It sidestepped and swung the saber at his chest.

He fought slyly, conservatively. “Is this all you got? Fight!”

“Roger.”

The suit changed styles, it attacked the joints with the rifle and swung hard at the search eye with the saber.

“This is better.” IT started to get worse as his fellow pilots were in a mess with the Aeries. The Zero system activated. And he tried to fight, but it was like a blank sheet.

“Ahh!” A distinctively female voice aired on the Gundam’s private channel.

A Taurus was attacking the offensively powerless Heavyarms viciously, as the suit hit the ground The Command Leo disengaged his fight. Firing his Maneuvering jets the suit leapt into the air and flipped all to familiarly. Heero watched as the Leo dropped his foot into the Taurus and swung the beam saber into its head.

“Trowa?”

“I’m fine. Why’d that guy save me?”

The Leo held out his hand to Heavyarms, who took it, “Stop playing stupid Trowa, who is in Heavyarms?”

The hatch on the Leo opened and Trowa stepped out. He jumped onto the arm of Heavyarms and walked towards the hatch. It opened and he stepped in.

“I am. Just like always.”

Wing, Sandrock, Tallgeese, and the other two suits surrounded Heavyarms. Duo was propping his suit up with his scythe and Altron was using his dragon fangs like crutches. Quatre called the suit and finally got visual. Trowa was sitting in the command chair. And behind him was Midii, he assumed.

“Trowa? We have to ask you some questions about your attacks on us. Are you coming peacefully?”

“Attacks? I’m afraid I don’t remember. My memory has always been weak after that incident.”

Milliardo interrupted, “We’ll solve this at base, okay?”

The suits loaded themselves onto the carrier. Heero had his gun out when Trowa and her exited.

“It is small in those cockpits.” She commented.”

“Very.”

Heero cocked his gun for emphasis. Trowa took a step back, placing himself over Midii in Heero’s line of sight.

“Let’s go. We have to discuss Felony assault, stealing of Preventer property, aiding and abetting.”

“Has Duo charged me?”

“No. But you attacked our suits.”

“So? I have lousy aim. Bad coordination.”

“Stealing of…”

“Heavyarms is mine, I let the Preventers use it in their name as Long as I pilot her. And before your final charge, I didn’t aide anyone, I just went along for a ride.”

“Fine, I’ll think of something later, You, Midii? I do have evidence on you.”

“I’ve taken care of it Heero.” Trowa said. It was true Midii had cuffs on. Barely locked, but cuffs were on.

“I’m gonna get you.” He snarled.

“I see no reason to press charges on Trowa.” Lady Une said, “All’s well that ends well.”

“And what of Ms. Une?”

“She bargained out of jail time.”

“Injustice!” Heero said. He wanted Trowa to get something, only he got to have this kind of impudence with the laws.

“get over it.”

“Its nice to see that the DA understood.” Trowa said as he led Midii down the courthouse halls.

“Yea, just a little to easy, I’ve definitely earned jail time.”

“If it makes you happy, I have a ball and chain routine we can work out.”

It took Midii a second to recognize the pun. “Oh my god Trowa, Really?”

Trowa wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “I love you, you know. Midii Une, will you marry me?” he slid a simple diamond ring onto her finger.

“Yes.” She didn’t even think about anything else as they kissed.

And they all lived Happily Ever After (After Heero killed that bug up his @$$)