|
"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
Mars Colony Base Dome Date: 1st March AC 198 Time: 13:49 MST [Mars Standard Time] Simpson "Parks and Wilder have missed the scheduled check in, Sir. There is an alert on the com lines for the Base Dome. Security alert for intruders in the dome and a medical emergency in the area Parks and Wilder were checking." the communications officer glanced up at his commander, ear piece pressed to his ear. "Fucking screw up." Simpson scowled, glowering into space, contemplating what could have gone wrong. Explicit instructions had been issued for the teams to avoid contact with scientists, engineers and especially the intended targets themselves. Who would it have been? Marquise or Noin? The crazy one was likely, Simpson did not trust psyche reports at the best of times, but when the subject was an acknowledged nut case, well... The alarm sirens were no longer screaming, that was something at least. Someone had the sense to cut them off. Probably Marquise, he reflected. It should not have happened that he had lost two of his people so early in the mission. Dead? Possibly. He did not expect any of the team to find mercy at the hands of a madman and his whore. Two of his men taken out on a recon operation. How had that happened? "Can you confirm status of Parks and Wilder and their location if they are prisoners?" The com officer sighed, returning his attention to the chatter over the monitored com lines of the base. "From what I have heard so far, sir, I think they are dead. The base is on alert, all personal to report to emergency stations." Simpson drew a steadying breath. Alright. So his bad feeling bump was itching something fierce at the moment. He knew this mission was trouble, but they were only two people and he had a full team, half of which were held in reserve. There was also the Sleepers to be considered. They could be brought into action, though he preferred to keep them out of the game. Bringing them into play acknowledged that they had no hope of performing this mission without taking the ultimate step, and that he was loath to perform. Two men permanently out of action. He could deal with that. Despite the presence of Marquise and Noin most of these people were scientists and engineers. Definitely not fighters. Yes, he had no doubt that some were good in a bar room brawl, but they were not trained fighters. Not killers. That still gave his team the advantage. He had to contend with two people who were a threat and a couple of thousand others who were a nuisance. Those couple of thousand would now be cowering in their respective rooms and a few at emergency stations. The alert could still be used to their advantage in that it would clear the corridors of the base. His problem remained Marquise and Noin. They had to be taken down. "Contact the Beta Team. Have them take control of the Alpha Dome's control center. If they have to, activate the sleeper agents to assist. I want Alpha Dome secured ASAP." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alpha Dome Control Center Time 13:50 Barker Barker stepped into the room and with a sigh nodded slightly, motioning to the recent addition to the control panel. The series of switches had been added to the control board only in the last week and it was a measure he had taken only because Preventer Earth had specifically instructed him to cooperate with Agent Wind if it was likely to avoid blood shed at the base. After long discussions with Wind he had agreed to the suggestion made by the man to avoid blood shed. The woman seated at the consol nodded and began to trip in sequence the five switches. Both slipped on the face masks, adjusted them nervously and waited. Behind him Joe Mako grunted, scowling at the screen, playing with the face mask he wore. All of them in the control center had portable oxygen cylinders strapped to their hips. They had half an hours oxygen, enough to see them safe until they could remove the masks. "How long will it take to work?" Mako queried, voice thickened and muffled by the respirator he wore. Barker did some quick mental calculations, watching as the gages above each of the switches began to climb. Each switch and gage was for one section of the pie that was the overall design of the Alpha Dome. The switches led to gas cylinders spliced into the ventilation system of the Alpha Dome. "Works in seconds, once it gets into the air ways. It should take about five minutes to circulate through out the entire domes ventilation system. It's possible that one or two may catch on to what is happening and manage to take precautions, avoiding the effects of the gas, but most of the dome will be in the Land of Nodd for the next six hours. My team will check on anyone moving and contain them. We will see that they and the sleepers are moved to secured sections for containment until we have this business sorted." Mako shook his head slightly, watching the gages. "It was Lu, wasn't it?" Barker nodded, turning to face Mako. "Yes. Yes, it was. Two dead. Jenny is being taken to medical now and the surgeons and emergency team are ready to work on her." "Everyone says Marquise is insane. Violent. He doesn't have a patch on Lu, though. She... she is a powder keg waiting to explode. How bad is Jenny hurt?" "Pretty bad. We will hear as soon as the doctors have the time to deal with us. I think it is safe to say that Lucrezia has already exploded. There is no going back now." Mako scowled under the mask, motioning in the general direction of the Base Dome. . "Zechs? Any word from him?" "I'm not sure where he is at the moment. Not since he sent word to seal down the dome and put the errant children to sleep. He did promised he would try to keep the dome intact." "Shit." Mako shook his head, visions of absolute disaster running through his mind. "Wonderful." Barker frowned, glancing over at the gages showing the level of sleeping agent in the domes oxygen supply. "We can always assist the security agents, Joe." "Not likely." Mako snarled, waving away the comment. "I don't trust the bastards in control on Earth any more than Marquise does. Besides, I'm not likely to offer Lucrezia Noin a stab at my back. That woman is dangerous." "Pity the Earth Gov didn't think about that. Agent Fire was well named in my opinion. Why the bloody hell those idiots on Earth had to start this... " he sighed, shaking his head in denial of the obvious. "I still put my money on Zechs." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Base Dome Time 13:53 Noin *"If you walk down corridor A3, you will kill directly two of his men, and cripple Jenny Santos, who will be caught in the cross fire." * Noin paced the room, Katerina cradled in her arms. Lucian slept on the hospital bed, a tiny bundle surrounded by pillows to ensure he did not roll off. He was due to be fed and would stir soon enough. He tended to sleep more soundly than Katerina, for longer periods, and more deeply than his sister. It was a blessing, for now. *"If you walk down corridor A3, you will kill directly two of his men, and cripple Jenny Santos, who will be caught in the cross fire." * How had he known? How had he known what would happen? The words would not leave her alone. They repeated over and over again in her mind, never leaving her consciousness damning her repeatedly with her actions. Two men dead. Two men dead and Jenny in the operating theatre. Had she killed Jenny too? *"If you walk down corridor A3, you will kill directly two of his men, and cripple Jenny Santos, who will be caught in the cross fire." * God. How had he known? Where was he now? Where was he and what was he doing? She needed to talk to him. She needed answers and the answers to the questions she had to ask could only be given by him. She had called the emergency team and sounded the general alert and all that time she had silently screamed within. She did not like to kill. She had trained her soldiers during the war to stay alive, blaming any deaths in a combat situation on poor planning and inadequate officers in charge. She had been so proud of herself and her teachings, certain she was right. She might very well be right, but it did not change the facts. She had lost an entire year's worth of cadets to the cowardly attack of a terrorist planting bombs in the student barracks. Even after all this time she had not really forgiven Chang Wu Fei his massacre of the student pilots at Lake Victoria Academy. Now, here, she was faced with a situation where people were dead, possibly dying and she had started it. She had been the first to kill. After sounding the alert she had gathered the twins from their carer and come here, to the medical wing, to await news of Jenny. Crippled? Had she crippled Jenny by taking out those bastards who had come for her children? Here was not safe. Not for her. Not for her children. Where could she hide her children until the threat was past? Where would be safe? Would the threat ever be past? The ESUN would send more and more agents to Mars until they had their way. They would keep coming, barring her family from leaving Mars, but not allowing them to live here either. Not in peace. Not as a family. She could see it now. What had she done? She had not intended to kill them. She had only struck out because they were there, and they were obviously looking for her babies and she... she had reacted. There it was. The hard core of it all. She had reacted without thinking, seeing only that the threat was suddenly in front of her and that she really needed to hit someone. She had argued with Zechs and had not been able to make him see that she was right and they had to resist. Now... Now she had killed and her friend was fighting for her life in the operating theatre and Zechs was not here. *"If you walk down corridor A3, you will kill directly two of his men, and cripple Jenny Santos, who will be caught in the cross fire." * Yes, well he had been right about that much, at least. Damn him. Damn him to hell and back for this entire bloody mess. How had he known? Corridor A3. Two agents dead. Jenny wounded. He had been right on the mark, as though he had seen it. As though he ... as though he had known it would happen. Noin froze. "Oh, Zechs, no. No. You can't have meant..." shaking her head she settled the now sleeping baby on the bed, beside her brother. "You can't. You can't have known." *"Standing here arguing is working to the advantage of those agents. You have closed one window of opportunity already by refusing to take the shuttle. Thanks to you and your obstinacy I can't get the twins off Mars now. They have to remain here. Any shuttle that leaves now will be shot down. The last shuttle I had secured from prying eyes has been found and sabotaged. There is no escape from Mars for anyone."* "He had escape plans. Multiple, multi layered plans." the certainty of it weighed heavily on her. She stared, unseeing at the children who in their innocence were the victims of this entire mess. Her mind wandered back over the conversations they had had over the last weeks, feeling sick to her stomach over the oh, so clear meaning behind his words. Clear now, but back then making no sense. She saw again the constant distractions he had seemed to absorb himself in, shutting himself off from her. He would stare into thin air, apart from the reality of their rooms, frozen away from her and the world around him. Seeming almost as if he could see something that only he could see. *"If you could know all possible futures, what would you do, Noin?"* What was it he had said to her? What were his exact words? She had dismissed it. Just another instance of his fazing out of reality; another instance of his wanting to avoid the harshness of the reality they lived in. Another instance of his reluctance to commit himself both to this life they led and to her as her mate, her partner in spirit and flesh She was such a selfish bitch. She had not tried to understand. It had all been about something very different to their relationship. She had only seen it as a reaction to her forcing herself into his life. She had taken his growing disinterest in the world around him as dissatisfaction with her and the fact that she had stayed, made herself comfortable in his rooms, in his bed. She had thought he was disturbed by their living arrangements, reluctant to acknowledge that he had feelings beyond friendship for her. What if... what if she had been very wrong with her assumptions? *"What if you saw your best friend run over by a car and die because a drunk driver was let through a road block? If you could change it by pointing out to the police that the driver was drunk, even though he looked alright, would you do it?" * "Oh, God." //`No. It's not possible. Just not possible.// *"What if then you learned that your friend had overdosed on drugs and died? If you could do it again, go back and change things. What if you let the driver through the road block, but you run out into the road and pushed your friend out of the way? He's hurt but he's taken to hospital and they realize he has drugs in his system and he is saved that way. What do you do if you saw all those possibilities, Noin? Which future for your friend do you choose?* "Shit. No. He can't mean it." Cold, hard knots of dread formed in her belly. * "And a year later in a fit of depression he looses control and takes a gun and kills people walking through a shopping mall. For no reason. For no sane reason at all he kills ten people. If you had let him die in the first place, those ten people would not have died." * "No. Not possible. It's not possible." Her hands clenched in her dark hair as she closed her eyes, but the memory would not leave her in blissful innocence. * "What is worse, one of those ten people was a heart surgeon, who in a few years time would have saved the life of a person who would bring peace to the world. Yet another of those ten would murder seven women before he could be caught and brought to justice." * "But... What if... what if he... he..." her eyes went to the infants sleeping in blissful ignorance of the harsh realities of life. Sweet innocence. Innocence she had lost years ago. * "I don't want you to say anything, Noin. I want you to think about it. Was it the right thing to do? Was your choice of possible futures the right one? Which choice was best?" * "Oh, God." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13:55 Simpson "I want Marquise and Noin found ASAP. I want them found and I want them isolated. If they resist, take them down. Find the children. Response acknowledgement from Beta team?" Simpson paced, listening for any sound in the ventilation system that could mean they were being hunted here. Jacob Frazier, the communications officer glanced at his commander and quickly back at his instruments. "No communications with the Beta Team, sir. Not even an acknowledgement of your orders." Simpson's scowl deepened. They could not possibly have taken out Beta Team. Could they? They were not that good. There was no way they could even know how many people were actually included in the mission. They. Preventers. Glorified cops. No, something was very wrong here. Very wrong indeed. He had to get to the bottom of this, and that meant getting both Noin and Marquise under control. Fast. "Keep monitoring communications, Frazier. I want to know when they find Marquise. Take him alive and leave him conscious if at all possible, but take him down fast. I need him to get some answers. The more time we give them, the better their defenses will be." ~ * ~
|
