"Sensus Divinitatis"

Written By: The Plotting Housewife

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated Parties. This work is written for pleasure not profit.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Ghosts, Demons, Apocalypse, Major character death, blood, gore, violence

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5x6

Summary: It begins with a prophecy and ends with Judgement Day. What happens in between will determine the fate of the human race. The murders of the Gundam Pilots was only the catalyst. The beginning of the end.

" Sensus Divinitatis"

Chapter 13: June 23rd, AC 206, 5:22pm

Sally watched as more military personnel arrived at the hospital. Patients were being moved from their rooms to interior areas of the building. At times, they were crammed together, multiple patients per room. The areas previously occupied by those patients were being turned into a makeshift base of operations. Stock piles of supplies were coming in by the truckload. 

Among those, Sally noticed, were weapons. Lots and lots of weapons. Cases of fully automatic rifles, handguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and grenades were carried in with forklifts, stacked along the walls of the hallways.

Not long after Une's warning that Prime Minister Cambridge was headed to the hospital, he'd stormed in, his generals in tow, announcing the facility was in lockdown until further notice. 

Soldiers in ESUN uniforms were donning Kevlar vests and bullet proof helmets. Armed to the teeth, they gathered in droves at every entry point into complex. Snipers were stationed on the roof and in areas surrounding the hospital, hidden deep in the woods, camouflaged among the trees. Civilian hospital staff who tried to intervene were subdued and apprehended. 

At the forefront of what was now looking like battle preparation, was Cambridge. The former Alliance commander had essentially declared martial law over the hospital and was turning it into a military stronghold. The doors and windows were being barricaded, large sheets of gundanium covering weak access points. The loud buzzing and popping of power tools was ear-splitting to Sally's still-recovering senses. 

She roamed the hospital in search of Cambridge. The man never seemed to stay in one place for more than a few minutes. She found him in the lower levels after an irate staff member angrily relayed how Cambridge had kicked everyone upstairs. He'd apparently chosen the lower floors as his command post. At the moment, he was bellowing at a few unfortunate technicians who were having some difficulty establishing communications with the other sovereign nations in the area. 

Sally, who'd been trying to speak with him since his arrival, stood near the large desk Cambridge had commandeered and waited for the man to quit barking. 

"Prime Min -"

"I don't care what the problem is. I want a secure line out and I want it now. We must have contact with the other nations. There's no time to waste."

"Prime Minister, excuse me -"

"Yes, what - who are you? How did you get down here?"

"Prime Minister, it's Dr. Sally Po. I'm here under General Une's ord -"

"Oh, yes. Dr. Po. I didn't know you were still here. As you can see, I'm very busy. What can I do for you?"

"Yes, I noticed. That's what I was going to inquire about. What is going on?"

Bushy white eyebrows lowered over icy gray eyes. "I really don't have time to explain."

"You are locking down a civilian hospital, I think people deserve -"

"This hospital is under military jurisdiction -"

"Which is run by civilians. Now, tell me what is going on."

Cambridge looked around, then back down at Sally. "Alright, come with me." He pointed at the soldiers working on the communication wires. "I want those up and running when I get back."

"Yes, Sir."

He led her down a short hallway to an empty room and shut the door behind them. Sally crossed her arms. "Well?"

Cambridge shifted, brushed a knuckle across his nose. "You - I'm assuming you met Dr. Bensen."

That same jolt of fear raced down her spine. She stammered, "Uh, I - yes?"

"Did he seem...off to you?"

Sally observed Cambridge closely, not sure how much of her experience - hallucination? - she should share. "You could say that. What's this all about?"

Cambridge leaned against the door and closed his eyes, looking as though he'd aged twenty years in the span of hours. He looked tired, resigned. "I - he's something - I'm going to sound certifiable saying this, but...I don't believe he's human."

That sparked Sally's interest. Cautiously, "What makes you say that?"

Cambridge's head lowered. He shot her a vaguely surprised look that she hadn't just dismissed him outright. "Did you have any strange experiences with him?"

Sally was getting tired of this game of avoidance. "Just tell me what you know, Prime Minister."

"We were attacked...by Dr. Bensen, I believe. My team and I barely made it out. I knew there was something about him, but I just couldn't be sure." He sighed, his head bumping against the door. "Now I know."

"Now you know what?"

"He's been planning this for a long time, I'm sorry to say, Doctor. There's a war coming. Bloodier and more deadly than any human has ever faced in our entire existence." He raised his hands helplessly, palms up. "Judgement Day is upon us."

"What the hell are you saying?"

"Bensen - we appointed him because we knew he was an extraordinary doctor. He would have to be in order to become General Khushrenada's personal physician. His allegiance was shady at first, but after his exoneration, we thought he'd make a very influential surgeon general." Cambridge shook his head, "But, he always seemed strange to me. I found myself uncomfortable being alone in a room with him."

"Strange how?"

"Strange - I wasn't sure at the time, but I must have known somewhere deep down, I always knew. That's why I built this place." He softly knocked on the wall with a knuckle.

Sally waited, breath halting, "What, Prime Minister?" Her pounding heart threatened to bust through her rib cage.

He sighed, a long defeated sound. "The Prophecy."

"What prophecy?" 

"Most people don't know this, but before the wars, before I ever put on an Alliance uniform, I was heavily involved with Dekim Barton's inner circle."

"What?" Sally sputtered.

"This was pre-war, mind you. A good forty years ago. Dekim was - well, he was a very strong advocate for colony independence and he had a lot of supporters. Including me."

"But you were part of the Alliance! You were very outspoken against Operation Meteor."

"Yes, well. Things happened...within the Foundation, which bled into the other close knit factions. They weren't things the general members of these organizations were privvy to. Only those in the know, and that was a very select few."

"What kind of things?" Sally asked, though she was pretty sure she didn't want to know. 

"Strange things. Cultish things. Dekim told his followers that the Earth Sphere was going to destroy the colonies and enslave the people. He became obsessed with a prophecy he'd read in some ancient scriptures he'd gotten a hold of. How these sacred texts got into his possession is beyond me. He never told anyone. After a while, our monthly meetings would begin with Dekim raving about God, the Devil, demons, and the End of Days. He began speaking Latin almost exclusively in these meetings and he taught the inner circle how to read and speak it. He preached about the evils of the Earth and how God had spoken to him about how to save the colonies -"

There was a knock at the door and Cambridge cursed. He turned and opened it just a crack. "What?" 

Sally could hear the tech's voice, "Sir, we got the line going."

"Good. I'll be there in a few." The sound of boot heels clacked down the hallway before Cambridge closed the door again. "Anyway, that was how Operation Meteor, his brainchild, came to be."

"Because God told him to?"

"He said God was guiding the colonies to independence and freedom and that destroying the Earth was the only way to accomplish that."

"And you guys believed that?"

"No, Doctor, not all of us. There were a few of us who refused to buy the dogma. It seemed preposterous at the time. The ravings of a madman. Unfortunately, the ones who tried to leave were killed. I barely made it out alive myself. I escaped to Earth with only the clothes on my back and was protected by The Romefeller Foundation for a time, before General Khushrenada took control. I left and joined the Alliance, only wanting the Earth and the colonies to live in peace. It wasn't until after the first war that I did start to believe that maybe Barton was onto something, or had set something in motion."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that OZ and White Fang were working closely with Dekim. There was some sort of secret pact between Dekim, Treize, Quinze, and Zechs. Dekim told them all about the prophecy. He believed the Gundams were tools of the Devil, convinced the Pilots were demons. He was furious about being betrayed by the scientists who built them. He promised the faction leaders that if they helped him, not only would they be avenged, but they would achieve eternal life. That was about the time Bensen began making a name for himself, though I believe he'd been involved for quite a while before that. I always found it odd how that slippery, little bastard managed to weasel his way into the inner circle."

"When was this?"

"About a year before Treize was killed. Dekim promised them that they could reach the highest celestial status in the eyes of God. Bensen somehow convinced them that Dekim was telling the truth."

"How?" 

"I really don't know how. All I do know is that there is a prophecy and that prophecy is real. For everything that was wrong about Dekim, he was right about that. We're about to enter a world of shit, Doctor."

"Who is Bensen? What is he?"

Cambridge opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by frantic knocking. He turned and yanked the door open. 

"Sir, you need to see this." It was one of Cambridge's generals. He looked grave. 

They followed him down the hall to the break room where a vid screen was mounted in a corner. More news...more devastation?

Another quake? 

This one struck the western seaboard of North America, but it did far more than take out one city. A long, narrow swath of the continent, from the far northeast corner of British Columbia down to the western edge of Mexico, was gone. Sunk. Into the Pacific. The earth's crust had cracked miles below the surface, originating just east of Oregon's border with Idaho. The crack spread rapidly to the north and south, everything west of it breaking off and separating from the rest of the continent. The split tipped the long broken strip of earth, rocking it back and forth in the Pacific like a toy boat, spilling buildings and people alike into the sea.

After the rocking, came the sinking, both of which pushed giant waves onto the outermost edges of Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, eastern Mexico, Alaska, and Alberta, Canada. It swept away millions of more lives with it. It took a total of thirty six minutes for the floating shelf of earth to sink. Only thirty six minutes for thousands of miles of land to disappear under the ocean.

Sally stared at the screen, her hands over her mouth. An icy feeling of dread settled in her gut. She chanced a look at Cambridge. His face was grim, but not shocked. Slowly, his head turned, meeting Sally's eyes.

"It's begun." 

 

~ * ~

Chapter 14

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