"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"

Une had a hell of a time reviving Billings from her dead faint. She'd shown the assistant the security footage from the attack on ESUN, as promised, and the woman spilled onto the floor in an ungainly sprawl. A vigorous slap to the face did the trick. Harsh, maybe, but then Une had never been known for her bedside manner.

Now, said assistant was sleeping her anxiety away in the infirmary, thanks to a healthy dose of barbiturates. Une honestly didn't know what else to do with her. She was causing more problems than solving them and quite frankly, was driving the General mad with her frantic pacing and blubbering. 

The rest of the Preventers had set to work securing the facility from any possible hostile actions, whether they be human, or...otherwise. There were still a number of skeptics in her little ragtag group, but they seemed to understand that despite everything, there was a threat, and they needed to take it seriously. For that, Une knew she could count on them. 

She sat at her desk and mulled over her conversation with Sally earlier. She was deeply unsettled that Treize may be involved in all this in some way. It was no secret that she'd harbored a deep and all-encompassing love for the aristocrat. He was her idol, the man of her dreams, and he knew it. He'd played her like a fiddle when he was alive, using her love and her loyalty to get what he wanted. He pretended to be interested because he knew, as she hoped for something more, that she'd keep coming back. She did his bidding, unquestioningly, and was continuously let down, but kept her hope alive as he'd gaze deep into her eyes and brush his lips against the back of her hand with a sultry, "M'lady..."

She tutted. What a self-centered prick. How could she have been so blind for so long? 

But how exactly could he be involved? He was dead, for Christ's sake. Had been for a decade. She scratched at her forehead, irritated that none of this seemed to lead anywhere. Had his soul come back? Was he still wreaking havoc on the world from the other side? How ridiculous of a concept was that?

She booted up her computer again, pulling up the satellite footage of the attack on ESUN. She watched again as four shadows hovered a few inches off the floor of the lobby, flanking Bensen, waiting for the cue to attack. There were four of them. Four. There were four generals during the war that were involved with Bensen's circle. Barton, Quinze, Zechs...and...Treize. Une gasped. Could it be? She leaned forward peering into the screen, desperately trying to make out any features within the shadows that would indicate who they were. She still couldn't see any details, only vague shapes, but was it actually possible that the shadows had once been those four men?

Was Zechs dead? He was still listed officially as "Missing". But if what Sally said was correct, then the fourth one must be Zechs, which would mean he had to be deceased as well. The numbers seemed to add up, but then what happened to Zechs? Where was his body? She needed to talk to Cambridge again. Somehow, that old geezer knew what was going on. Unfortunately, the phones had been less than reliable and Cambridge kept evading her. 

"Sir? Sir!" One of her Preventers came rushing into the office, without knocking. It was on the tip of Une's tongue to give him a verbal lashing that would leave his ears ringing for the rest of the week, but the Preventer continued before she could say anything. "Me and Kessler were listening to the radio and - it seems the whole west coast of North America had a massive earthquake. It broke off, Sir! It - it just sunk! Into the ocean!" The Preventer's eyes were wide, pupils dilated with shock and fear. He breathed heavily though his mouth and his hands shook as he pushed them through his hair.

Une stared at him, trying to absorb what she'd just been told. It wasn't the kind of news one heard every day and her brain seemed to putter and go blank for a moment. She smacked the side of her head to reboot the cogs and they turned again, albeit reluctantly. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. She struggled to form an eloquent response, but the only thing that came out was, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Une had been dozing with her head on her desk when a consistent beeping finally filtered in through her exhausted mind. The shock of what had happened in North America was the last straw and she'd, quite literally, just passed out. Her brain deciding enough was enough. She needed to sleep. She rubbed the small bump on her forehead where it'd smacked the surface of her desk and glared at her computer as if it were the source of all her problems. An icon in the lower left corner of her screen blinked, indicating an incoming call. Une clicked it and Andrea Sillian's face appeared. Her eyes were wide and frantic, her usually impeccable makeup smudged and running down her cheeks. It looked as though she was hunkered under a large piece of furniture. Her desk, perhaps. 

"Sillian? What the hell is going on? What are you doing?"

Sillian's voice was hushed and urgent as she leaned into the screen to whisper. "General...General, we're under attack. I -"

"Under attack by whom?"

"I don't -" There was a eerie-sounding screech, something that sounded about as far from human as one could get, quickly followed by a very human scream of terror. Sillian peered around the corner of her desk and Une saw a pair of legs run past. The reporter ducked back under, looking at Une with eyes that belayed the fear she was feeling, but also a deep resignation. Like she knew, she knew she was about to die and there was nothing she could do about it. "There's people here - well, not really. I mean I - I don't think they're people. They looked human when they first came in, but they - changed somehow..."

"How many?"

"I - I don't know exactly. At least a dozen -"

"Changed into what?" There was another terrifying screech, like a cross between a large bear and a bird of prey. Sillian curled herself into a ball.

"I don't have much time before they find me, General. I don't know what they changed into because I've never seen anything like it. They came in and just started slaughtering everybody." There was more screaming in the background and loud thumps, like large pieces of furniture falling over. The camera in Sillian's computer shook and the lights overhead flickered out. Une could barely make out the reporter's face in the dark, but she could still see her eyes. Wide with fear. She'd never liked the woman, but her heart wanted to reach out to her. She felt suddenly impotent, so damn impotent, watching what was probably the last moments of someone's life, and being completely unable to stop it.

"They're coming for you, too, General," Sillian whispered. "I think my time is up, but I need you to check your email. That anonymous source that sent me the information on the murders, they -" Another loud bang, but ominously, the screams had stopped. Was everyone dead? "Shit - they sent me something else. A whole folder of stuff. I wanted to get it to you before -" There was a loud thump and the desk jolted. A body, mutilated, and covered in blood hit the top of the desk and rolled off, landing beside Sillian. She screamed before Une could tell her not to. Her cover was blown. The desk was ripped away by unseen hands and Une watched in horror as the woman rose up onto her knees, hands up in front of her, shaking, in a gesture of surrender. 

She heard the plaintive whisper, heard her beg for her life, before she was sliced in half. Literally. It took a few moments. Sillian was seemingly frozen in place as Une listened to the horrific gurgling sounds that escaped from the already dead woman's throat. She watched the blood trickle from between her lips, dripping down her chin. Then, the top half of her body, split at the waist, slid off and fell to the floor. Another few seconds and her knees finally buckled, bringing the bottom half down with a stomach-curdling splat.

Une could only sit there, in utter shock at what she'd just witnessed. A moment later, a shadow crossed in front of the screen. Legs, bending down to kneel on the floor. A face appeared, encased in shadows, but this time she could see features. Eyes that'd she memorized a long time ago and would never forget as long as she lived, gazed into the screen and right at her. She felt her heart cease to beat in her chest as the mouth she'd once have killed to kiss, curled up into a mockery of a grin, reveling three rows of teeth, sharper than the sharpest man-made blades. She cried out, unable to stop herself. The grin widened and there was a jolt of impact as the camera lurched, then went to static, then dark altogether.

Her heart jump-started painfully in her chest and she gasped as she fought to regain her breath, completely frozen with her hand up to her mouth. Tears flooded her eyes. How long had it been since she'd cried? Twenty years? More? She couldn't help it. She'd never experienced such a feeling of helpless terror before. Nothing, in all her years of war, the bullets that she'd single-handedly put into people's heads, could have possibly prepared her for what she'd just seen. 

How did one fight something of this magnitude? Those things...Treize...seemed to possess abilities far beyond the scope of human understanding and she realized then, that she was probably going to die. They all were. They'd wiped out all five Gundam Pilots in one fell swoop, without seemingly batting an eye. They'd cut down several dozen people, highly trained civilians and soldiers alike, with little effort. What chance did they honestly have when they came for her and her team? Were the earthquakes connected to all this? They had to be, because that was just way too much of a coincidence for it not to be. She glanced at her gun sitting propped up in the corner and realized that their weapons would likely would do less than squat to protect them. You couldn't shoot smoke with a bullet.

Une had never felt so utterly helpless in her life. She always prided herself on being able to handle anything that came her way, but how was she to handle this? She didn't even know what she was dealing with. Feeling like there was nothing left to do but accept her fate, she dropped her head into her hands, trying to control her breathing with measured counting...one, two, three, breathe...one, two, three, breathe...

A tear dripped down her nose, unbidden, and dropped onto the surface of her desk, followed by another, and another. It was beyond her control now and she wept at the infuriatingly useless feeling of being at the mercy of something far more powerful than she. She did not want to go out this way. Not on her knees, begging like a weakling for her life to be spared. 

"Aaarrrgh," she groaned through clenched teeth, pounding her fist against the desk, in complete rage at the futility of the situation. No, she was not going to go out like that. No matter if she was outnumbered, outgunned, overpowered. She'd always vowed to herself never to surrender, that she would die as she lived: fighting. And that was exactly what she was going to do. 

But first, she needed more information about what she was dealing with.

She pulled up her email and clicked on the attachment Sillian had sent her, refusing to entertain the grisly images of the woman's death though they kept wanting to pop back up in her mind's eye. What was done was done. Sillian's problems were over, Une's had just begun.

There were various documents inside the folder and Une clicked on the first one. It was a photograph, a group of men and a few women standing in a group in front of what looked like some sort of excavation site. Beneath that, a caption that read, Dig site, outside of Cairo, Egypt, AC 182. Une wasn't sure what the relevance was and almost moved on to the next document when her eyes caught sight of a familiar face. Fucking Heimlich Bensen stared into the camera from within the group of archaeologists, smiling like that cat that got the cream. He was holding up what looked like ancient scrolls, or scriptures of some kind, though she couldn't read the text. She stared at the man's face, eyebrow raised. He looked exactly the same now as he did twenty four years ago. He hadn't aged a day. And when the hell had he ever been an archaeologist? 

"You slimy bastard. What are you playing at?"

The next document was a photo of what was probably the scriptures he'd been holding. Only three pages, but somewhat readable now. Une clicked the zoom feature, trying to interpret the text, feeling extremely disappointed that they seemed to be written in Aramaic. She cursed colorfully, and moved to the next file, absurdly wishing Quatre was still alive to translate it for her. 

Luck seemed to be on her side as the next document appeared to be a possible translation of the text. 

Exhibit 14A, Aramaic documents found at Cairo excavation site 1329.45, August 23rd, AC 182. Discovered by scientist, Dr. Heimlich Bensen, Frankfurt, Germany.  

The caption was followed by what appeared to be location coordinates. 

Upon discovery and subsequent translation of the text, it appears that these documents, source unknown, foretell a Biblical prophecy, but one that was previously never found in any of the well-known holy texts and appears to be unconnected to any original source material such as any and all translations of the Torah, Bible, or Koran. We originally believed that these documents were a hoax, possibly dating back to the early eighteenth century, Before Colony, but analysis confirms that the estimated age of the documents to be approximately thirty five hundred years old, or older. The parchment from which it is written is derived from trees not native to Cairo, or Egypt, but rather northern Europe. It is also noted that these trees have been extinct for at least three thousand years. 

Une stared at her screen, intrigued, but confused. Fascinating stuff this all was, but what did it mean?

Rough translation as follows as some of the text was damaged by exposure to the elements:

'And God said unto his Disciples: 'I will bring life to this Universe, but that life will come with a price' [not legible] 'If my creations wish to know Me, they must first fight to prove not only their loyalty, but also their strength and perseverance' [not legible] 'For there is an entity that wishes to destroy them all. This entity will be kept away from every species on every planet by Three Seals: The Martyrs, The Bloodline, and The Peacemaker. If these Seals are broken, the entity will have free reign to bring Destruction, Pestilence, Pain, and Death. But Beware, there are other species that work in solidarity with this entity, as they have turned from Me, and they do not have the same limitations that barricade my creations from harm. They seek out these Seals to destroy them and then and only then, will their false God be unleashed.' 

Une leaned back in her chair and scratched her head. What the hell did all that mean? This was reading like a...Cambridge came to mind. Did he mention something about a prophecy? Is that where this was going? That all of this was happening because of a prophecy? And what was the deal with the Three Seals? 

There was a page and a half where the text was unintelligible, but then continued.

Apparently, there was a creature, some people might refer to it as a demon, that worked in tandem with the entity, which Une could only surmise as what many humans would call a Devil, though she honestly didn't really know what that meant. This "demon's" mission was to break the Seals so that the entity could destroy every living thing on every inhabited planet in the Universe. It seemed this creature, and Une was finally beginning to connect the dots, would recruit the numbers for its army by being a false prophet and convincing those in power to pledge their loyalty to it. When that happened, those people would essentially die, not only physically, but by killing every shred of what they had been before. In this case, their humanity died with their bodies. 

Upon their death, they emulated and took on the forms of their prophet, their boss, so to speak. Une gasped as the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. Bensen. Bensen was the demon. He'd convinced Treize, Barton, Quinze, and likely Zechs to follow him. He lied to them, must have, and somehow got them to pledge their loyalty. When they died, they became...she remembered the face looking at her through Sillian's computer screen, the three rows of pointy teeth. But, the eyes had been Treize's, of that there was no doubt. It was him and he was now some sort of demonic creature, doing the bidding of something even stronger than him, losing every possible piece of himself, of what he'd once been. 

She snorted at the irony as the scenario seemed a little reminiscent, albeit a little extreme. That had been what she'd essentially done for a time. Thrown herself to the wayside, abandoned every aspect of herself, her principles, her humanity, for someone else. Someone who had power over her, even if she'd been the one to give him that power. Now, it was he that had given up who he was and was answering to someone - something- else. And now he, along with many others - an army, the text had read - had sold themselves out, for whatever reason, and were in the process of taking out the inhabitants of Earth, probably starting by killing anyone and anything that had any semblance of power and influence. Textbook conquering 101, wipe out the most powerful first, then the rest will crumble with them. Take out the organization, the sense of safety and security, and the rest of the populace will succumb. 

"Huh. Son of a bitch."

Those Three Seals, though. Her mind was spinning frantically now. She knew the answer to this one, she just needed one little push to - Aha! Martyrs. The Martyrs were the Gundam Pilots, of that she was sure. Mariemaia Khushrenada had to have been the Bloodline as she was the only living relative of Treize. So who was the Peacemaker? She had a feeling she already knew, but was she alive? She'd been in Sanq when the earthquake and tsunami hit. 

She's alive. The Peacemaker is alive and she needs your help. You must wait for her to come to you and then you must take her to safety. If she dies, all is lost...

Une nearly screamed as the disembodied voice seemed to bounce off the walls of her skull. She looked around frantically for the source, but the office was empty. Her eyes narrowed as she recognized that voice.

"Yuy? Is that you?"

Very good, General. Keep your nose clean and your weapons ready. You'd better be prepared for the fight of your life.

Une propped her chin on her hand, sighing. "Goddamn, but I hate my life."

Her eyes caught sight of the computer screen again. Two words stuck out like a sore thumb near the bottom of the page, important enough to be repeated.

Sensus Divinitatis

Sensus Divinitatis

Sensus Divinitatis

~ * ~

Chapter 19

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