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"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: 15:13 MST [Mars Standard Time] Zechs "Sharnice! Sharnice, get in here!" Too long. It was taking the woman too long to answer him. It amazed him that a grown woman could be such a coward as to run at just a look from Lucrezia. Well, maybe not a coward, he reflected, more a woman who was aware of her survival instinct and willing to listen to it. He did admit Lucrezia had looked ready to kill when Sharnice had come to investigate all the noise. Noin was well known amid the Terra Formers to have a volatile temper and be willing to display it when she warranted the situation deserved it. It was the Italian in her. Usually when she felt he did not pay her the attention he should and that was usually when the visions distracted him. Few enjoyed the experience of having her ire turned on them. Few in the base would interfere in a domestic dispute either, preferring to keep out of the way until things cooled down, hence Sharnice's rather hasty departure. Her judicious retreat, however did not help him at all and he needed her to care for the twins. He had to go after Noin before she could kill herself by doing something stupid. Why would she not understand what he was trying to explain. Even now, after he had tried so hard to make the explanation plausible and easy, she did not seem to understand what he had told her. Was he explaining this matter the wrong way? How else was he to explain it? What were the right words that he just could not seem to find to say to her? God, he could not even explain it to himself properly, not in words at least. Words were so limited. He just did not have the vocabulary to help her to understand that he could not tell her what she wanted him to. He could not lie. He could not lie to her. He honestly did not know how events would turn out in the dome. He only had an idea of what might happen, despite her making the decision that she had. He had learned early on that other peoples influence on events could cause more than just small changes. Quite often it was the small, seemingly insignificant things that made the greatest difference. Changes he might not be able to compensate for. Changes that might even help what he pursued in the outline she had given him. Even Lucrezia herself affected her own intentions. Taking off the way she had affected what he glimpsed of the future options. He needed to try again. The shaping was there, though. The shaping for the future was in place, he could see the general form, but not the finished result. It was, in all probability too late for him to make a difference where Noin was concerned, but he would not again be able to look at the twins without feeling crushing guilt if he did not again try to save their mother. She made it so hard, at times, to shape the future around her. To help her. To give her what she most wanted. Did he want to give her what she said she wanted? //Ah, God. Noin. I'm not good for you. I'm not good for anyone to love. You deserve so much more than I can ever be. You should be on Earth, working with Preventers, finding someone who can love you the way you should be loved. You should not be stuck in the middle of this mess.// It did not help at all that this mess had been entirely of her making. Had she not followed him to Mars, there would have been none of this. Might it have been worse? No. Likely it would have been much better, for her at leas, but he had not had control of her decisions. "Sharnice!" Both twins were screaming in his arms, reacting to the shouting, to the tension in the air. He could so strangle that woman. Both women. One going off in righteous anger to get herself killed in one of fifteen bloody ways, and the other for running from Noin's dirty look when he needed her here. The nurse was not one of the five he had tagged as ESUN agents and he had felt no warnings or experienced any feelings of foreboding involved in her appearances in his visions, so he felt he could trust her with the children. He really had no choice at this point in time other than to trust someone. He could not watch the children and influence events in the direction best suited to the better options he had gleaned. He needed help, and Sharnice was it. If he could ever attract her attention. "Zechs? You and Noin done now?" Her blonde head peeked around the door, hesitant, looking only too ready to bolt should Noin be present and looking ready to kill. Calm. He had to remain calm. It was no use if he panicked, that would serve no purpose. No panicking or he would prove to be just as bad as Noin was at this point in time. Gleaning the options spread before him he knew she had gone to one of three places. Was she really out to kill herself? Did she honestly think that she could take on everyone, ESUN agents and the Sleepers hidden in the dome and win? She was just not thinking, he was certain, only feeling and that would serve only to get her killed and people hurt. He was uncertain which of the three options was the most likely, but thankfully they were close together in location at least, and he could try each, starting from the closest to the medical center. As he neared each of the possibilities he might be lucky enough to get some clarity in the fog of choices he peered into. Options. So many possibilities. "Take the twins. Please, Sharn. Don't let anyone near them. There are ESUN agents amongst us, not just those who came on the shuttle today. Just you, Sharn. Please. Lucian is due for a feed and Katerina may need a feed to settle her down. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but I have to go after Noin." She was one of seven nurses at the base and though childcare was not the major field in her training, she was competent in the care of the unexpected additions to the community. The appeal in the ice blue eyes clenched her heart and she gently relieved him of his squirming, sobbing burden. She held both to her, still staring into his eyes, seeing plainly the gratitude and the fear before he turned from her and ran for the door. "Zechs! What do you want..." "I'll be back for them! Just keep them quiet so the ESUN agents can't find them. I have to go. I have to find Noin." The door swung closed behind him and she sighed, staring at the door, then at the children wailing as only the very young could do. "I don't understand her. I really don't understand your mother, kids. She's got a man like that and she runs off to play soldier, instead of staying here, protecting you." She had not known what to expect when the base personal had been informed that the infamous Milliardo Peacecraft was coming to Mars. The Terror of Earth. The Commander of the White Fang. She had been born on L2 and been one of the fortunate one's to have earned a place in an exchange studies program that had seen her leave L2 for Earth and train to become a Nurse. It had taken her years to complete her studies and earn her qualifications, but she had succeeded and even felt brave enough to try the offered posting to the Terra Forming operations on Mars. She had followed the One Year War from the remote distance of Mars and thought that the whole thing was distant, remote, divorced from her reality. Distance put such a new light on such matters. When he had arrived on Mars and stepped off that shuttle the first thing that went through her mind was that the vid pictures they had monitored did not do the man justice. No male should look that good. He made half the women look plain. The second thought was that he was clearly property of Lucrezia Noin. That woman had made it perfectly clear from the start, glaring down any female who dared to look at him with anything remotely resembling interest. She was like a predator standing over a trembling newly snared rabbit who knew it was one bite away from its fate. The snared rabbit had put up a quiet, dignified opposition to her intentions, quietly resisting her every advance though he had not accepted any attention from any other woman either. Or any of the men. They had a gay community at the base and the luscious blonde had drawn their attention quickly enough. Neither male nor female had had any success at drawing his interest and then, one day, Noin had appeared with that overly smug smirk of success from his quarters, making it plain that she had spent the night there. She had moved in the very same day. A nice enough woman, Sharnice reflected as she carried the twins to the bed, settling them there while she dealt with the necessary task of making formula's and preparing breech clouts. A nice enough woman in herself, but she definitely had issues where it came to possession of the blonde. Overly possessive and she tended to treat him like an errant child. Was this quiet unassuming man really the Terror of Earth? Surely such a man as they reported Milliardo Peacefcraft to be would not take it quietly, the pursuit of his heart, body and soul? Noin sometimes seemed a little overboard if she caught you talking to him. //'My possession' should have been written on a huge sign and hung around his neck// she reflected. //I honestly don't know how he has put up with it so long. Maybe he is insane. If it had been me I'd have taken a piece out of her for the way she treats him long before now. Wish he would run after me the way he just ran after her.// "There, now little ones. Just give Shanice a chance now. A good feed, a clean backside and a nice cuddle. That's what we will do, hmm?" That would settle the babies until their father or mother returned. It came as something of a shock when the latch on the door clicked and she spun as the door behind her opened. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noin //He would not tell me what I wanted to know. Why? Stubborn fool. I'll not allow them to dictate to me. My children are not their toys. I am not their toy. Zechs is not their ticket to more power. They'll learn that the hard way, if they so wish. Damn him. Why? Why won't he tell me?// Where to first? Where should she go to begin her campaign to take down the bastards who insisted on disrupting her dreams? She had no idea where the agents were. Either those from the shuttle or the Sleeper agents in the domes. Well, that was not exactly true. There was one person who should be in a certain place at this particular time. One whom she had been assured was an agent for the Earth bound politicians who dared to interrupt the life she had chosen. Yes. Her so called best friend. Shanna McIntyre had some explaining to do. It would be good to get that explanation out of her, too. Satisfying, even. It was even likely that she would know where the other Sleeper agents were and their identities, perhaps even the location of the agents from the shuttle. She knew exactly where Shanna should be at this time. The back up control room had been used to open the air vent into the base and it was not likely that she would still be there. All personal had been alerted to the intrusion and had been instructed to take emergency procedures. That should place Shanna in the main control room. //Likely Zechs will be on my tail as soon as he can get the twins settled. He's resourceful enough to have managed to take care of that by now, so I had best move my butt. I don't want him involved in this. Its my fight. Its my family. My children. My man. God. He will be mine. I'll not let it be any other way.// Fine noble sentiments, she reflected, wincing at the recent altercation between them and her private thoughts. //If I can't have him I want someone else to love him. Yeah. Right.//The last thing in the world she wanted was for him to be in the arms of anyone other than herself. //Be honest with yourself, Lucrezia. Just be honest. Your out for these bastards because they have forced the issue you were trying desperately to avoid. You were getting too comfortable with your life, girl. Too settled. You had him in your life and in your bed, right where you wanted him, and you were selfish enough to not care if he really wanted you there. With these bastards now here things will not settle down. Whether they're here or not it will never be the same again. Things have changed. // Her hands closed around the weapon, sliding it neatly into the back of her belt. The second automatic pistol went into the front of her belt. She stared at the small pile of items scattered over the table, the items removed from the men she had killed. She was only interested in the guns for now. Not enough time to search the bodies lying on the tables to one side of the room. Turning she moved out of the make shift morgue and headed off down the hallway. Time to hunt. //I stopped trying to win him. I had him right where I wanted him. I had the chance to win him and I slacked off. I took it for granted that he had settled to the way things were, content to have me there and my hands on him. Maybe he had. Maybe he had, but now its all changed. I resent them for that. In fact, I hate them for that. It's happened before, this disruption to what has become a very settled, contented existence. Chang took away my life at the Lake Victoria Academy. He entered the picture and he killed my students. He killed more than my students that day. He killed my ideology, my way of life. I was so bloody naïve. Its no different now. Not really. The irony is that I ended up working with Chang, though I can't say he was ever exactly pleasant company. At least as Preventers the issue of us working together never came up. I honestly don't know if I could have worked with him for any length of time. I never did forgive him for Lake Victoria. Not really. Learn to get past it, yes, I did learn to get past it, but forgive, no. No, not honestly. Nor can I ever forget. They were my children. Mine. I was teaching them how to stay alive in a fight and he came along and killed them in their sleep. Where is the honor or justice in that? Now its all come back. No one will have my children.// Rambling. Shock, a small voice whispered in her ear. She was in shock. She did not want to face the fact that they had come to take her babies. She did not want to face the fact that without an instants hesitation she had killed two men. She certainly did not want to face the fact that as a result of her actions Jenny Santos was in danger of dying. A wheel chair, Zechs had said. Offering her hope that she had not killed her friend. Maybe, maybe not. The fact remained that she was the one who had instigated the damage. She was the one who had hit out, reacting, not thinking, a thing she had slapped her cadets for doing. The soldier in her was as strong as ever. Stronger, perhaps for the very fact that she had ignored it for so long. Only a thin veneer had covered the soldier. So thin. She peered cautiously around the corner, checking that no one was there to see her. Clear. With a cautious eye to the ceiling vent near her she jogged quickly to the end of the adjacent hallway and peered around the corner. Zechs would not take long to deal with the problem the twins presented him with and she had to hurry before he pursued her. The communal lounge was empty, as it should be in an alert situation and she heard no movement, and so hastened to the far side, peering around the wall to check the hallway beyond. Clear. The elevators looked to be within easy reach and to have no guards or traps in evidence. That was good, she thought, because she was uncertain if she would have restrained herself had she met any of the agents running loose in the base. That thought sobered her. One moment of unthinking retaliation had already resulted in the present situation. Jenny was in the operating theatre. Would likely be so for hours yet to come. She did not want to make that mistake again. None of the innocents in this should be involved. Restraint had to be exercised. It was her responsibility to exercise control. She had to have control. She had full intentions of whopping ass and then getting back to family life. If she massacred her friends in the process what chance would any of them have for simply resuming their lives? It was glaringly obviously that they could not remain on Mars. The ESUN had shown that even Mars was not safe for Zechs Marquise. Milliardo Peacecraft had died when the Libra was destroyed and the press had joyfully proclaimed that the Terror of Earth was dead and no longer a threat. It still rankled that the politicians and media had lauded Heero Yuy with the salvation of the Earth. No one had ever mentioned in public that it was Zechs who blew the core. Milliardo had died the villain. Before that Zechs Marquise had died after that business in Antarctica. Oz had lauded the Lightning Count a hero who died fighting a battle with Alliance suits. Treize had not defended him. Romefeller wanted him gone, out of their hair, finding him too much of a handful to control. Kushrenada had not seen fit to defended him, giving him up to Romefeller's machinations, using him to further his own aims. Where was there left for them to go? Who was there left for Zechs to be? He would always be Zechs to her. Always. He had never been Prince Milliardo Peacecraf to her mind, after the first half hour of little girl dreams when she had learned his true identity. Princes did not get down on their bellies and crawl in the mud in the middle of a rain drenched African rainforest. Princes did not wear combat fatigues, or have brambles and debris tangled in tightly restrained, filthy hair. Princes did not silently pull leeches off them in tight lipped silence and eat field rations cold because there was no way to heat them. Princes did not go for days on end crawling in the most appalling conditions to track down terrorist factions who had slaughtered an isolated community in the middle of the African jungle. No one else had wanted to know about the small villages being victimized by the terrorists. Princes did not do that sort of thing. Zechs Marquise did. He had blown the core of the Libra on that day and Yuy had known that. She had heard him tell them all about it when he had come to MO II after it was all over. Noin knew it. Relena had heard it and despite being told that her brother had sacrificed his life to stop the Libra, she had decried him and disowned him. Lady Une had heard it. There had been others who had heard it too. The other Gundam Pilots, Duo Maxwell and Trowa Barton had been present, though not for long. They had gone to check on Quatre. The people in the control room had heard it, including a delegation from the Romefeller council who had followed Treise into space. Even a reporter or two had heard it. Why had they hidden his sacrifice? Why had none of them protested that his sacrifice went unacknowledged? Politics. In the end, it always came down to politics. None of them had even suggested that they reveal to the Earth Sphere that Zechs was alive after the Barton Incursion. None of them had wanted anything else but to remove him from Earth as swiftly as possible. If not that, then arrest him and remove him from the picture before anyone else realized he was alive. He had not even been given a thank you for holding the invasion until the gundams had arrived. Politicians left a sour taste in her mouth. She was guilty too. She had wanted him off Earth as quickly as possible. Not for their reasons, of course. It had been her ideal chance to claim his attention and begin in earnest her courtship of him. She had taken it as her opportunity to make him see that it was time he settled with her, regardless of whether he loved her or not. He would learn to love her in time. She had been just as bad as Relena stalking Yuy. No, worse. Relena had had the excuse of being fifteen years old. She had no such excuse. //This is not getting you where you need to be. This is not an improvement on your current situation. Face it, shall we? The world just ain't a fair place, Lucrezia Noin. Get over it.// -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time: 15:20 MST [Mars Standard Time] Zechs The dining hall was empty, shockingly so when he reflected that there was usually someone there having coffee or tea and a chat. Even in the small hours of the Martian night, when sleep had been impossible and he could ease out of Noins embrace without waking her and wander the base, he had never found the dining hall totally empty before. The lights were switched down to a dim glow to conserve power in this emergency state and it lent the silent hall an eerie quality. Option one down. No Lucrezia. How far ahead of him was she? Had she headed straight out on her crusade to clean up the ESUN personal without thinking things through? Had she found weapons or gone out bare handed? He would not even put that idiocy past her at this point in time. Cursing Zechs considered. The worst possible option he could think of and had seen as a possible option for her to pursue, was for her to go after Shanna McIntyre. Therefore, he could see her doing it. Damn. Of course she would think of Shanna. Her actions would be considered a personal betrayal by Noin and she would not likely soon forget the insult. She had probably forgotten the other options he had given her hours ago. McIntyre should be in the Main Control room at this time, in this emergency situation. If she wished to keep her affiliations with ESUN security a secret, then she would go to her assigned emergency station. Noin would head for there. He froze, head snapping up in reaction. It had been a subtle noise, but he was so keyed he could not have missed it. With a soft hiss he slipped into the deeper shadows and ghosted his way toward the kitchen door. He had passed through the kitchen on his way to the dining room not two minutes ago and he knew the room had been empty. No one was assigned kitchen duty when the base was on full alert. No one. He gasped, choking off a gasp as for an instant the world around him wavered. Possibilities crowded him, pushing for his attention, dragging at him to enter the well of options now forming. He struggled to maintain control. He could not afford to go down under the weight of possibilities now. He had to maintain his focus. What was happening elsewhere to bring about this surge in options that was strong enough to threaten to send him to the floor in a whimpering heap? He had to find Noin, but he could not leave his back exposed. That was just asking for trouble. Nor did he have the time or safety just now that he needed so that he could deal with the threat of more possibilities. If he wanted to survive, if he wanted Noin to survive, he had to suppress the options trying to crowd his perceptions. One thing at a time and hope he did not make a fatal error. He crept to the kitchen door. In the interests of moving silently he had left it ajar, carefully balanced so as not to snap shut noisily when he had entered the dining room. Glancing around he suppressed a grin and picked up one of Trent Hastings highly polished silver trays from its place near the door, crouching as he nudged the door, angling the tray to catch a reflection of the kitchen through the door. He was just in time to see the second woman drop from the overhead vent onto the food preparation table. She reached up to push the vent hatch back up and slipped off the table. "Map says Medical is just around the corner. Next hallway to the right." a soft whisper. He scowled, silently cursing as he considered the situation. He now had a fair idea what that crowding of options might have entailed. He was unwilling to invite it back to check, as it would deplete his resources so he could not react to this threat. If they investigated the medical center they would, without doubt, find the twins and Sharnice Mathan would not stand a chance of stopping them. The ESUN would gain the children and use them to draw Noin and himself to them. Noin would kill him for allowing the agents to get the children. "Its likely this place has a room they have converted for use as a morgue. The reports said that some twenty people had died getting this place set up. We may find the bodies there. Simpson wants it confirmed that they are dead." "So much for the macho studs." a snort of disgust. "Think its true that Noin took them out?" "Likely so. We check medical for their bodies first and we restrain anyone we find there. The less people wandering around here the better. God. What an incredible screw up this mission has been." Ice blue eyes ran a quick inventory over the weapons he could see as they moved toward the far door. Automatic weapons, both using pistols he noted. Each also carried the experimental electro shock stunners secured to their belts. The presence of those weapons disturbed him, as they were not cleared for use to his knowledge. He shook his head in bemusement, both at the fact they had weapons whose side effects could be deadly and that they wore combat fatigues. While the clothing would work well on Earth, the colours and design meant for Earth was not exactly the best camouflage for the Martian desert. It was senseless anyway to wear desert combat gear considering they had had to come overland to gain entrance to the dome, and that meant they had to wear environment suits over the fatigues. Nor were they really well suited for the interior of the base. They would stand out like sore thumbs. It would have made more sense for them to wear Urban combat fatigues to allow them to better blend with the interior of the base. Automatic pistols, shock weapons and at least two knives each. Bowie knives from the shape of the hilts and the sheaths. They walked with confidence if care, and that told him they knew how to handle themselves. He had to decide what to do and he had to decide quickly. They were going into the medical center to chase either the children or a confirmation of their comrades in arms death, the latter being the one most likely. While checking on the deaths they would have to search the rooms, no one not a first class fool failed to check their backs, and that meant he was going to have to delay chasing Noin. He had no choice. If they checked the rooms they would find the twins. They must not find the twins. He had to keep the babies out of their hands or all was lost. As much as it pained him to turn from trying one last time to make Noin understand, he had run out of time. He would have to trust in Noin. He would have to trust that she would come through this in one piece and they could then talk. He would do anything she wanted him to do if she would just not throw her life away. It was not a certainty that she would die. There was hope. ~ * ~
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