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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"
Chapter 84 Mars Colony Base Dome Time: 21:03 [Approx 18:53 Sanc time] Zechs “So, time to decide who we are hunting. Sleepers or the military?” They had remained silent on the exact nature of their plans while they had left the building, lingering in the vicinity just long enough to watch the men set off for the air lock controls. With the sound of the locking bar sealing the door into the enviro suit building echoing in their hearing they had then made their way to the crates at the far end of building C, where Zechs had met with Cloud and the techs. Once crouched within the safety of the crates and after checking that they were alone Giles had turned to Zechs, choosing to ignore the runnel of blood that was seeping from around a nearby crate. He knew that one if not both of the Sleeper agents Zechs had so recently taken out lay there and Giles chose not to question the methods of execution. In his view they deserved the deaths they had received for their cold blooded killing of innocents caught up in this affair. //That is their only crime. To have the misfortune to be on Mars at this time. Well, screw the ESUN. I will do everything in my power to ensure that no more die who are guilty of simply being here. If I ever had doubts about joining up with Raydon this would have settled them.// “That is a question we need to discuss.” Zechs leaned his back against a crate, absently rubbing his abused shoulder. The pain was on the rise and there was no opportunity to do more than wish it was all over and that he could find a bed to collapse into and die. “We have some decisions to make and before then we need to discuss a couple of things. About this situation.” Giles grunted softly in acknowledgement and settled beside the blonde, finding as comfortable a position as possible, angling himself to watch the right hand approach knowing that Zechs would guard the left. “Fine. Our options are?” Zechs settled against a crate, positioning himself to gain the best available view. “It depends. On just how much faith you have in what I have seen in visions.” Giles sighed softly, glancing quickly at the man to find his attention focused on the view. “I have met and talked with those who have the ability to foresee the future before. They have said repeatedly that just because they see what is to come does not necessarily mean it will definitely happen. It is possible for us to effect changes in some cases. In the event of disasters or accidents, for instance, it may be possible to make changes. As an example if you knew that a sudden flat and an inexperienced driver over compensating would cause a car to spin out of control and crash into the play ground of a day care centre. If you stop the car before it reaches the point where the blow out occurs, then you could stop the kids from being hurt.” “So you have an understanding that what is seen need not necessarily happen? That will help, because a great deal of what I see does not happen. I see the same event multiple times, each instance different from the last in some small manner. I try to sort through what I see and choose what seems to be the best of the options available. I have previously experienced visions of situations similar to this present configuration, but there are differences. You should know that the biggest difference this time is you.” “Me? How so?” Giles stared at the man, wary. Zechs resisted the urge to shrug, not keen on aggravating his shoulder and that was all the gesture would accomplish. “You had not appeared in any of the visions that I can recall that match to this time. Understand, Giles, that I can not remember every vision that I have had. To my knowledge you have appeared in no vision that I have seen concerning this time and understand too that I can not see much beyond this day. Since Epyon's destruction I lack the clarity and the ability to sort through the myriad of options that present themselves. I know that I have witnessed through vision a great deal more than I can recall, but I have to work with what I have. With what I can remember.” “Epyon. That was the name of the red mobile suit you flew in the war, yes?” The softest sigh of regret escaped him at the thought of the demonic looking machine and he nodded. “Epyon was more than a mobile suit. It was considerably more. In brief, it was … well, I suppose the most apt description I could come up with now is that it acted as a filter and a focus for the visions that I saw. It also would appear to have been a catalyst for the visions. I …I never had more that an odd … dream … before I flew Epyon.” “A catalyst? You mean to say that you think it was a machine that awoke your Gift? That is unheard of. No such machine exists.” “If you mean woke it as in how I see things now, then yes, Epyon did just that. Before I used the machine there were visions, but there were very few that I can recall and I think I largely blocked them. Subconsciously. The first one that I can recall of those that I can remember, and I only recalled that recently, was of the massacre of Sanc.” Giles sighed, rubbing a hand over his jaw. //I wish there were Trainers here. I am not trained for this.// “You were seven or eight then, I believe?” It was the last thing he wanted to recall, but he had responsibilities and this man needed to understand him and his limitations. “I had the dream the night before my sixth birthday. I dreamed of what amounted to the total destruction of Sanc. It was the night before Sanc fell. Some of what I saw in the dream happened in front of me …” he could not describe the horror and the terror of that six year old boy. //There are too many memories of death and destruction at that time. Too many memories. I can not afford to induce vision with this recounting. I need to speed things along and make a decision before the thread of events shift and I lose the weave.// “We are pushed for time, Giles so we have to be quick. I can't afford to spark off another round of visions because that will take me out of the picture. I can not physically recover enough strength to finish this if I experience visions again. What I am saying is that You did not appear in any of the visions I had concerning this attempt by the ESUN to take custody of myself and my children. It is obvious with your presence that what I witnessed in vision is not going to be exactly true to that Sight, but then it rarely is exactly how I see it. I'm used to that. There are other differences too. For instance, I do not recall having seen Cloud and his technicians in the visions I had before. In those visions I went to the air lock station and I worked alone. All I managed to do was to save twenty people and the rest had to be abandoned as I took the survivors to safe ground. In an alternate option, every one in the maintenance teams were all locked out of the dome and they died. In a third option they were locked out of the dome and Barker, Preventer Agent Eagle and a team he brought up from the Alpha Dome, managed to get them to a cave system with sufficient supplies to survive the night. In that scenario about twenty died. That was not all either. There were other options, but in all of them that I can remember Cloud and his techs were not in any of them. Nor were you.” “I see. You mean that you can not be sure what will come now, since things have changed so much from your original visions. Still, Zechs you knew those agents were in these crates waiting to take down the maintenance techs. What happened in that vision?” He winced, shaking his head, not keen on recalling the horrors that led to the deaths of the three techs. “Let's just say that it was not a desirable option. No need for the details beyond you knowing that those three died and I was taken down trying to save them. When I recognized the conditions at the time I took a chance that your presence would change things enough to make an appreciable difference. I was right on that occasion, but I do not claim to be infallible, Giles. I make mistakes and when I do, they are generally massive mistakes. I forgot the bombs in the elevator shaft, as an example. I make the kind of mistakes you really don't want to be around.” “Hey. Stop that. If you are trying to frighten me off while you go and do a particularly unsavory bit of hunting, then you can just think again man. I am here for the duration. Raydon assigned me to Mars and to bodyguard you. Before you have a go at me about that, you need to understand that I had the option of refusing the assignment, but I was curious about you. While it is true that I did not know you were here when I took the assignment to come here and keep track of the mining and trade potential, I have no regrets about my decision. You are one of the Gifted and we stick together. We have learned that we can rely on each other as we can rely on very few others in this life. Raydon warned me before I left Station One that there was trouble to come here, but that he could not 'see' what it was. I still chose to come. I chose to stay when I learned you were here and Raydon gave me the chance to pull out. My being here is my choice. I know that as yet you don't know much about us, but I have confidence in your unique gifts as I have every confidence in my own. We are Gifted, Zechs. All of us share something rather unique, though we may not all have the same abilities, still we call ourselves Gifted. Once I, like others at Station One, called myself Cursed, but I know better now. Gifted is the more appropriate word. I don't actually know of one of our kind who would refuse to help another when they needed it.” “Even at the cost of their lives?” “Shit happens, you know. We all have a date with death, it's inevitable. I believe that if you live well, then you will die well and when it's my time, nothing I can do will stop it. I will at least have lived to the full.” “You should not leap into the path of danger either.” Giles chuckled, waving a hand at the blonde. “Nope, I don't have to leap into it, but I choose to chance my life for the good of all concerned here. If we don't do something we will all die and if we manage to take those bastards down, well, we will live a day longer." “I have to warn you that I do not see as well as I once did. Epyon did much to refine the visions that it drew from me and made it possible to choose a path through that maze of possibilities. I don't have that ability any longer, I only have the visions and what little sense and order I can make of them, and we already have come to a point where I am groping at shadows. I can't be certain that we are following the best options available to lead us to the greatest chance of survival for the people here or in the sub base. I may be heading in the exact opposite direction or moving in circles and as a result of that inaccuracy I might be speeding along circumstances that will bring about the deaths of everyone here.” “God, I'm glad its not me who has to live with that kind of uncertainty every day.” Giles whispered, eyeing the man beside him. “How do you stay sane?” Zechs considered the view for a long moment and finally shrugged, cursed at that idiocy at the sharp stab of pain and glanced at the man beside him with darkened blue eyes betraying his uncertainty. “I don't think I am sane anymore, Giles. I don't think I have been sane since I activated the Epyon. I think I lost my sanity the first time I used that system.” “Did you have any kind of warning about what that machine would do to you? Any warning about what type of operating system it was?” he was honestly curious about the events that had shaped the One Year War, and in particular that final battle above Earth. “I knew nothing of the Epyon. I was given the machine by Heero Yuy, a Gundam pilot. He told me that Treize had made the suit and given the machine to him and that he did not understand how Treize thought. He could not make sense of what the Epyon showed him, I think. We would need to speak to him to learn if it showed him what I was shown. He took the Wing Zero and I took the Epyon. I thought it was Epyon that had done this thing to me-made me see the possibilities that result from every decision we make. Just not thinking about something is a decision, you know Giles. Every action we do affects the outcome of many lives. I thought it was all Epyon, you understand, until I recalled that dream that I had when I was a child, of mobile suits ravaging Sanc. I blamed Epyon for what I had become and for my insanity.” “Oh, I don't think you're a raving loony. I think that you have every right to be a raving madman after surviving that machine, but I don't think you are one. No, I think that you are a darn sight more sane than many people I know who survived the war. The Training Masters on station can help a lot and in many different ways. The first thing they will teach you is that you have to trust yourself and that you are not a freak. We all have suffered from the Freak complex to some extent, some more than others and for you, I guess, there is a bit more to it than most. You will find that you are not alone on Station One, Zechs. When I was last there, there were around twenty five Gifted undergoing training of varying levels. Raydon has agents who scour the Earth Sphere to find new talent who are suffering from their gifts and offer them a place on Station. It is a place where we can feel secure and where we do not suffer from the odd looks and the whispers that are always heard behind our backs. For me it was such a relief to know that there were others out there, in the Earth Sphere who have been living with the same fears and insecurities that I lived with for years before I joined the crew of Station. We are few, even on Station but we know that there are more of us who have been helped and who are working out in the Colonies and on Earth to bring others to Station who are looked on as Freaks or exploited for what they can do. Not everyone is Gifted, though the Training Masters will tell you that everyone has the potential to be Gifted, though not the awareness and ability to use those gifts. Those on Station One who are not able to use those dormant gifts have learned along with us who are Gifted that we are not freaks, just normal people with a rather unusual way of seeing or hearing the world around us.” “Unusual way of seeing the world.” Zechs mused, and shrugged, regretting the action immediately. “Well, that does describe the way that I see the world.” “The truth is that we are what we are, Zechs. We can not change that simple fact but we can change how we see ourselves and accept ourselves for what we are. Now, what are the options that we need to consider to help us here and now, because time is marching on and there are still people out there whose asses I want nailed to the walls with signs reading 'Traitor to Humanity' hanging around their necks.” “Nice vision that one.” he forced a smile, eyes sweeping the open view, hoping that they might succeed and that he might indeed find a place that would accept him for what he was in the future. Station One was sounding more and more attractive to him. “It's one vision that we can make a reality if we set about it with determination. I'm ready. How about you?” “I like you Giles. Alright. If you are determined to stay then there are a few possibilities that may lead off from this point. We can disregard the airlock and leave that to Cloud and his tech. I think I know what they will find and if I am correct and that is what I think it will be, then those outside the dome are either dead within the hour from exposure or safely in Barker's care. I am hoping that he found the clues I left for him and can make it work.” "You left clues? In Alpha Dome? How did you do that? I did not think you had ever been there.” “I have been, though I was carefully supervised while I was on site. No, I left the clues later when I left a map of the cave system that is the most suited to the needs of the rescue operation and I made a few notations on what equipment would be needed. I managed to get that map into the copies taken to Alpha during the latest transfer of equipment. I also made mention in a number of conversations we had about the caves and that they might have potential as emergency shelters should a need ever arise. I could not tell him what would happen in plain words. That I have learned tends to causes more trouble than it solves as a rule.” “Yes, it changes the circumstances. I know a couple of precogs who complained about situations that they had tried to avoid and made matters worse because they spoke to the wrong people. Subtlety seems to be the key to nudging events to more acceptable or desirable events.” “A nudge works better that a straight out push.” Zechs agreed. “I had hoped that by telling Lucrezia that there were Sleepers in the terra forming team and not providing her with the names of more than McIntyre, that she would take the warning seriously and not turn her back to anyone. If the bulk of the visions I have had concerning her are accurate then she will die today, if she has not already, because she will turn her back to a door and a supposed friend.” Giles glanced sharply at the man, noting the hooded gaze and the slight tremble in long fingers. He did not need the blonde losing his cool calculation at this time. “You think she is dead?” “I don't know. What I do know is that there was the very real possibility that no matter what I did she would die. Giles, I have seen her die of a broken neck down in the sub base, and I have witnessed her die because she is knifed in the back at three separate locations around the dome. I have seen her run over by a rover up here and she has been crushed under crates, not too far from where we stand now. I have watched her be shot by stun guns on kill settings and even seen one option where the setting was deliberately set to induce the most agony possible and still give her a chance to recover. That one was more as an inducement to get me to go after her. There have been so many options, so many alternatives involving Noin.” “Bait.” Giles sighed. “Yes. She becomes the bait in a trap.” “Do you have any idea where she would be?” “Not really. She could be anywhere in the dome or the sub base. There were more than thirty ways for her to die this morning. At one stage that was down to fourteen. I became a little too busy to count and focus after that.” “Well, does she feature in any of the options we need to consider now? Does she appear in any of the locations we are considering?” “Yes. Yes she does. That man is a killer, Giles. Special Services. He is no fool and he is angry because things are so out of hand and not through any mistakes on his part. He expected to come in here, take custody of the children and myself and place Noin in security restraint until the Wellington arrived. That is how it should have been. That is what he expected to happen.” “So why was it not what happened? What exactly changed things?” “I knew they would be coming. I managed to become a part of the terra forming team, a needed part even though I was watched. I gradually earned the run of much of the base where had I been contained I would never have had access and I had the advantage of this thing you call a Gift. I had known that they were coming long before they received their instructions on what they were to do here. One of the biggest problems for them that they did not foresee was that Preventer Earth gave the Preventers here instructions not to interfere with me. She even gave them instruction to follow my command when this began.” “Why would she do that? How would she know?” “Because she might hate my guts but Lady Une knows that I have certain instincts and that I am a survivor. Une and I have managed to have a few unmonitored conversations and she knows that they were using me to control Relena. By this time my sister would have been pushed far enough to explain to a few people exactly what is going on. I doubt that Une would inform her that she knew it soon after I was sent to Mars. She has done what she could for me here and no, I doubt that she knew what their instructions would have been, but she may have suspected it. She was capable of making such decisions herself, after all. If we can get off of Mars and vanish then there is no way that Relena can be coerced into obeying the factions behind this. Une will protect her and do what she can to see that Relena is safe until she is free to act.” “Politics.” Giles shook his head, disgusted. “I have learned that you can not get away from politics, my friend. Not when you have the misfortune to be born a Peacecraft.” He shrugged. “The Shuttle Control Tower is a possibility for them to make a headquarters for much of this infiltration. It affords limited access and good visibility on the approaches and no ground floor windows. A veritable fortress. If any portion of the vision I can recall that seem to match this time can still be accounted as accurate, then I do not expect them to be there at this time, but they will return if we do not take them out. The messages on the pagers would suggest that they are going down into the sub base and that is likely to be an attempt to find out how many of his team are still alive. He will not be happy when he learns that four of them are drugged out of their skulls and will be of no use to him for upwards of another eight hours. The only permanent casualties to his team are the two men that Noin killed.” “Any chance of them finding your kids while they are down there?” He ignored the clench within his vitals that threatened to have him go down into vision. A combination of vision and pure fear for his children that he did not have time to deal with now. He had to go on and not dwell on possibilities that he already had decided were unlikely given the current situation. “Yes, yes there is the chance that he will find them, but there were only two visions that suggested he would actually find the twins while I am running free, but …” “But my presence here makes that a question mark. Yeah, I am beginning to understand why you think you are going loopy. So, the best case scenario is that he will go down into the sub base, find his team in dreamland and come back up, pissed as all hell about the whole situation. He then will try to set a trap to bring you to him using Noin as the bait. That about it?” “Yes.” “What about McIntyre? How does she figure in this? Do you know how many of her people are still running around?” “No. I have no firm idea of how many Sleepers there were here. What I have seen of her suggests that she was Noin's prime target, but she is still running around and I have seen no sign of Noin.” He would not give into the fear that said McIntyre had taken out Noin. “Not so good then. Well, the two listed in the pager, this Simpson and Frazier, would likely be heading down into the sub base by now. Most likely already in the sub base. I don't know about you but I really don't think following them down there in the elevator would be a good idea.” “It's not. If there is one thing I will be avoiding from now on it is elevators. A few possibilities suggested that they would be at the elevators long enough to allow the tech, who I think is Frazier, to reprogram the charges so that McIntyre can not set them off. That is in our favor, but that does not make the elevators any safer. It just changes who has the trigger mechanism.” “I agree with you there. It would be easy enough for them to set up a silent alarm that they could monitor. Okay, no elevators, but that is about the only way to get down into the sub base isn't it?” “No, there are other ways down. There is also another possibility to be considered. There is a chance that Barker found my notation on a radio frequency that may be safe for us to use. If we could get a working radio with a halfway decent range on it, then we might be able to learn what is going on outside of the dome and at the Alpha Dome.” “So … the Shuttle Control Tower? Would that be our best chance?” “Yes, if you want to chance a run in with Shanna McIntrye.” Giles chuckled. “Hell, we have to deal with the psycho bitch sometime. Why not now? I have to admit I would like to learn if my partner on this assignment is alive. I like Chris and while he is in a mobile suit and they have greater oxygen stores, he has been out there all day and his oxygen will not last the night. I don't know how the suit will go in the cold either.” “There are hand radios in the shuttle tower, in the maintenance room on the third floor. With a little bit of boosting and the equipment we need to do that is there as well, then we should be able to get a call out to the Alpha Dome or to the outside workers.” “Right then. The Shuttle Control Tower it is. Let's go.”
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