Title: ESO
Author: bonnejeanne (bonnejeanne@yahoo.com) and vonceia (vonceia@yahoo.com)
Archive: GW Addiction http://www.oocities.org/fenris_wolf0/
Category: yaoi, AU? Epic Saga...
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5x?
Warnings: Yaoi. Old guys. Original characters. AU? You decide... OOC? Same.
Spoilers: Everything. I mean it, everything, series, EW, Ep. Zero, etc.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing characters and universe are the property of the copyright owners. Our stuff is ours. No money being made here. While our goal is to stay as in character as possible, any discrepancies are our mistakes.
Feedback: Any and all comments, feedback, critiques welcome, be they short
or long.

E.S.O. - by bonnejeanne and vonceia -

Part Seventeen: ESO cont'd

Alfa dodged right and left as the pursuing objects fired beams after her, dodging through the debris field. Arcing up, almost out of the plane of the Belt, and curving down again, she pushed the Tallgeese to its maximum speed and beyond, vaguely feeling pain as the acceleration crushed her body against the pilot's control chair. There, beyond the cloud. She could see an object. It wasn't large, maybe 60 meters, but she felt somehow certain this was the source of everything they were facing. Arcing down towards it, she had to dodge again, not quite avoiding the last blast, which rocked the Tallgeese, shaking her hard. Fighting the controls, she felt ribs crack, but forced the machine to obey and bring her down towards the solitary craft below.

Heero angled down and out of the field and then arced back upwards to a position that took him beyond the Belt and the cloud formation. As he came up, he saw the Tallgeese descending towards a smaller object in space. His eye was caught with the pursuing objects and he turned the Wing Alpha, heading towards and just beyond Tallgeese, firing at the pursuers.

The Tallgeese was hauling too fast to pull up, so she plotted a tight arc that would throw her around the object below and then above it, fighting to decelerate as quickly as possible. Dimly she felt something happen inside her body, another distant pain and found her mouth filling with blood. Ignoring it, she swallowed the blood and forced the Tallgeese to obey, silently cursing each of the engineers by first name, last name and middle initial.

Gasping, she saw Wing Alpha shoot past her and then the explosions as Heero destroyed the pursuing objects.

Turning her attention to the thing she was circling, she tried to study it, feeling her thoughts faltering as spots of darkness danced in front of her eyes. 'It's... I think it's a ship of some kind,' she sent on the keypad. 'It's... got what seems to be a thick shell, pocked with scars of small object impacts... it's... it looks so old..... nothing... looks old in space...' She thought he mind was wandering and struggled to bring it back on track.

Quatre felt Sandrock moving under the controls of Zechs Marquise, registered that a battle was going on and his suit was participating in it, registered Duo taking out wave after wave of objects, Wufei doing the same, Trowa...There's no end to this... no end... we will die... I will go on... I will return to the void until the next... new life... I will never end... I will never die...

Gasping, as if air could ground him, Quatre struggled with the alien thoughts. We have to live... we have to make it... we... I live... I go on... we have to... I... alone... I.... light thoughts like splashes of bright energy from a star going nova... bright... live... thoughts... I am.. thinking the thoughts... of the new life... I am... I am Quatre... Reberba Winner... I am...alone... I live.... I am... bright thoughts.... new life.... I return... to darkness... void... empty... alone... I.... bright.... long... eternal emptiness... timeless...

Trowa swallowed, firing round after round at the objects. His arms ached and felt as though this fight would never end. He frowned as objects, metal, materials disintegrated before him. He had lost count of how many times Heavyarms had been hit. It didn't matter. "Matter," he said, hearing the word in the cockpit. His voice. "Quatre!" he called out suddenly, feeling something was wrong. "Quatre, come in!"

The voice on the comm sounded distant and Quatre did not think of responding, but his lips moved, his voice engaged. "....die... we must live... I will live... endless... darkness... void... no end.... no change... no release..."

Trowa's frown deepened as his fingers clutched even harder on the controls. "Crescent," he said, and blasted several objects in front of him. Hearing word seemed to energize him and he blasted again and again and again.

Wufei's voice came, "Quatre in trouble?" the tone was half growl and half yell as the Chinese pilot worked, shattering objects with the dragon heads.

"Yes," Trowa said, mentally repeating the word that drove him on. "I sent the word."

"Zech's, let him take a hit," Wufei said, "Now! Quatre! Crescent!"

Zechs raised his hand from the controls as instructed watching as the controls registered the hit.

Quatre heard the word, without hearing it, and a picture in his mind formed, bright red against white, beloved symbol, and he blinked, fighting to see the cockpit around him. It felt the bright flashes of thought end and reached out for them without knowing how or why, submerging Quatre again in its mind.

The cockpit shook from a blast as Wufei's voice thundered in his speakers, precise and commanding. Quatre shuddered, gripping the arms of his seat, tasting blood in his mouth, and finding himself wrenched back.

"Allah!" he cried, "Bless our lives, and save those we seek to protect!" Blinking he looked around the console, trying to orient. "Heero! Come in!"

Heero Yuy smiled as he watched the things blow up and shatter. His attention was caught by the Tallgeese. Something was wrong. He moved as he heard Quatre's voice on the comm. "Wing Alpha acknowledged." he said.

"It wants to die, Heero!" Quatre said, trying to focus his mind. "You have to help it die!"

"Roger that," Heero said, zeroing in on the small object below. His fingers drummed on the controls as he took aim. "Alfa come in!" he called.

"The shell is designed to withstand an impact in space," she said promptly, though her voice sounded a bit thick. "We have to find a weak spot. There's something... an indention aft, it may be a propulsion port..."

Heero moved, his eyes spotting the place Alfa indicated. He didn't hesitate, but fired at it, hitting the spot dead on.

Alfa circled, fighting the black spots in front of her eyes. "Yes... heavy shielding but... something is spiking... hit it again.."

Heero fired again. "Get out of here, Alfa. I can do this." he said, his voice surprisingly calm as he watched the object below.

Alfa watched the reading on her sensors change. Some kind of reaction was taking place, although she ship did not suddenly fly apart, something inside was out of balance. Whatever power system sustained this...

"It's going," she said. "So am I - you too... book! This is going to be big..."

Not looking back, she hit the verniers again and headed back for the asteroid field at top speed.

Heero nodded as he looked down at the object a moment more. Then, he took off, still monitoring his controls as the Wing Alpha sped through space.

They reached the field and Alfa dodged through it, less accurately that before, taking hits here and there from smaller chunks of mineral. The craft behind them suddenly imploded, sucking in everything around it for a short radius, then emitting a blast of white noise that blew every comm off line and would black out communications in the Earth Sphere for ten minutes.

In the darkness, Alfa drifted. Her eyes were open, and she registered stars around her. The Tallgeese was dead in space. Vaguely she guessed her position was somewhere on the near-Earth side of the Belt, probably not too far from the Manta. Too tired to do anything, she simply watched the stars drift by, and began saying the first prayer she had uttered in twenty years.

"Please god, or goddess, spirit of space, whatever... let them be alive. Let them all be alive. I don't care about me, I've done what you set me to do, right or wrong, well or badly. Let them live. That's the only thing I'm asking. You took my son's father, you took my life and made it fit some purpose. We've done it. Now I can go. Just do this one thing for me. I know you don't answer requests, but make an exception. Let them live. All of them. All the ones I love."

Inside the Wing Alpha, Heero frowned as he felt the impact of the metal against metal. "Zechs Merquis, we are going to have to talk about this mastodon." he muttered then guided the suit carefully in the direction of the field and the Manta. In space, two mobile suits joined together moved silently.

"Alfa," Heero said into the comm, not knowing whether or not he was being heard. "We're heading back. I'll tell all about my miserable life. You'll love it."

In the Belt, the four Gundam pilots felt the blast as smaller pieces of the Belt itself got sucked into the implosion, and then the white noise blast knocked out communications and sensors for a few minutes.

When they were back online, everything was tumbled and the Gundams had sustained hits from small objects, but none were substantially damaged.

Around them, the inert material of the objects they had been fighting floated. The cloud was gone if it never existed.

All their comms were receiving the same message.

"Pilots, respond!" Howard's voice repeated. "This is the Mantasail. Pilots..."

"Quatre here," the blond said shakily, looking around for Heavyarms, Dragon and Deathscythe.

"Trowa here," the green-eyed boy responded, feeling his arms shake. "Wufei? Duo?" he said.

"Oh man, what a headache!" Duo said. "Where Heero? Anybody seen Heero or Alfa?"

"Heero and Alfa both accelerated through here at high speed, just before the boom," Wufei said, wiping a trickle of blood from his forehead where he'd hit the inside of the cockpit as the Dragon was tumbled.

Heero smiled. "Mission... complete." he said over the comm. "Heero Yuy online. I'm towing the Tallgeese. I don't know what condition Alfa is in. Prepare for Medical."

"I confirm mission complete," Quatre said in a firm voice. "It's... gone."

"You boys get your butts back here, I'm coming as close as I can to meet ya," Howard said. "Oma's in the bay waiting for you."

Heero nodded. "Confirm that." he said. "Zechs, either get a smaller mobile suit or a newer one. This thing is pretty, but big and heavy."

There was a cough on someone's comm and then a voice said, "Could be worse... could be Epyon..." Alfa sounded hoarse and exhausted.

Over the comm, Heero laughed. "Oh no. Not Epyon," he said.

"Actually," another cough, "Now that I'm thinking of it, I was supposed to take Wing... this is what I get for giving you the better suit..."

"That's true," Heero said, relieved.

"I'll work on it," Zechs replied, simply.

"Don't..." Alfa said. "Save it for someone else. This was my last glory ride."

"Great job, Alfa." Zechs said. "My life is shot and has no real meaning now, but I had a good time."

"What... a whiner..." Alfa said, having trouble breathing with the pain from her crushed ribs. "Put a... sock in it... gorgeous... Oma... I hurt."

"Then you should shut up and rest," Heero said. "You can kill me when you're better."

The Gundams made it to the Manta, and took turned entering to dock in the bay. Everyone waited for Heero to bring Tallgeese in first. It was an awkward landing, but Alfa grabbed the controls and got the suit in its enclosure.

She triggered the hatch and hit the emergency release for the pilot harness. Crawling to the open hatch she thought, why is it so far down...

Trowa sat down on the hangar floor and placed his head in his hands. He could still feel the controls in his hands. Looking up, he saw the hatch to Sandrock open and he stood back up, waiting for the first glimpse of Quatre.

Looking ragged and sweat drenched, but with an expression that seemed to glow, the blond emerged, spotting Trowa, and waving. He jumped down and crossed the space between them. Putting his arms around the taller boy, he squeezed as hard as his tired muscles would let him.

"Praise God, we all made it," he said softly. "Yeah," Trowa said, hugging back. "Allah be praised."

Quatre laughed. "It haven't said so many religious things in years," he admitted. "Trowa... I heard you. I really did. And I know you called for help. It worked. And you were incredible with Heavyarms. Everyone was amazing."

"We all were," Trowa said, his tone including Quatre as well. "It's good to see you, Reberba Winner."

Quatre simply let out a breath in a heartfelt sigh.

"Easy with her," Oma said, as Heero brought Alfa down from the cockpit of Tallgeese. She felt very light. There were smears of blood around her mouth and on the front of her suit.

Heero gently placed Alfa down on the gurney. "I am," he said, then looked up at Oma. "Might be ribs or something like that," he said with a shrug. He then looked down at Alfa. "You rest. I got some stuff to tell you." He bent down and kissed her forehead.

Duo came over, looking closely at the small woman. Her eyes were closing, then opened in pain as Oma ran her hands lightly down Alfa's body.

"Ribs... yeah..." Oma muttered. "Maybe something else. Come on, Howard's got a decent sickbay."

Duo smiled down at the female pilot. "That was pretty flying," he said quietly. "Spectacular, actually. I'm glad I got to see it."

Alfa smiled slightly and batted at his hand. "Thanks for covering my ass," she said.

"My pleasure."

Oma cut the brief conversation short by removing the gurney. "The rest of you show up at sickbay immediately. Howard's helping with the minor stuff."

"In that case, I'm fine," Duo quipped, wiping his forehead.

"Sickbay Maxwell, go! " Heero said, taking the braided pilot's arm. He glanced around the hangar and nodded to the other pilots.

Zechs watched as Wufei emerged from his Gundam. "Good job," he said walking closer.

Wufei looked up, taking a deep breath as the tiredness hit. "You too," he said. "It must be very difficult to fight remotely like you did. Quatre owes you his life."

"Quatre owes me nothing," Zechs said, quietly. "It was different, but as exhilarating. You need to go to sick bay."

"For a bump on the head?" Wufei said. "No. Zechs, did anyone ever tell you that you have self-esteem problems? I happen to know something about this, and I can tell that you definitely do. This is something you should work on."

Zechs' eyebrows rose as he listened to the young pilot. "I had not thought of it." he replied. "But, I will work on it Wufei. And I know it's only a bump on the head, but there are women involved here. Keep that in mind."

Wufei held up his hand. "Here is my rule about women," he said. "They are to be protected, cherished if possible, but never obeyed."

"However," he said, "There is definitely a shower with my name on it, assuming the Manta is fitted out for such."

"It is," Zechs said.

"See you later," Wufei said, and trotted off, catching up with Oma and the gurney. "How is she?"

"I'm fine."

"Shut up, Alfa. She seems to have a few injuries. I'll tell you in a bit," Oma said.

"Thank you." Wufei said. Then he went to find Quatre and Trowa.

Catching up with them, he said, "Hey... how about you two?"

Trowa nodded, seeing Wufei approach. "Tired and ok." he said.

"I'm fine," Quatre said, and quickly hugged Wufei, who only looked a little surprised. "Thanks for helping me back there."

Wufei nodded. "No problem," he said, and then quickly kissed Quatre on the cheek, and then turned to trot off in the direction of a cabin. Before leaving, he winked at Trowa.

"Well!" Quatre said. "That was different!"

"My words exactly," Trowa said. "But nice."

"Yes, definitely that," Quatre said.

Oma used the ship's comm to page Zechs. "Zechs! Check in."

"Here!" Zechs replied.

"Alfa wants you to communicate with the Preventers ship and give them all the information we have. Howard sent a brief message but they're waiting for details." Oma said over the comm.

"I'm on it," Zechs replied.

"Good," Oma said, turning from the comm. "I can now drug you to insensibility."

"Go for it," Alfa said, waving a hand. "Hurts."

Coming out ten minutes later, Oma found Heero and Duo waiting, along with Wufei who had just arrived, having showered and changed into clean clothes.

"Four cracked ribs," she said without preamble, "And a ruptured spleen. Also a bunch of other bruised organs. And a mild concussion. I'm afraid to look at the flight recorder and see what kind of G's she was pulling. When I get her back to the station, or even a real hospital, she should be fixable. How are you guys, anything I need to look at?"

Heero shook his head. "I'm fine." he said, then looked at the other two.

Wufei said, "Fine."

Duo said, "Well I feel like sh... like hell but it's nothing some rest and maybe a couple of beers won't fix. Time to flop. I'm napping the rest of the way home."

"Oh," Heero replied, simply.

Duo looked at Heero. "Look the last time I slept was on L2, okay? Come on, even you have to rest."

Heero looked over at Wufei. "All I said was oh, right?" he asked.

Wufei smiled slightly. "That's all I heard," he said. "Make him sluice off first... actually you are both pretty ripe. Just so we don't overburden the ship's filtration system."

Heero looked up at Duo and shrugged. "Sure. Thanks." he said. "By the way, I think we all need to talk. You interested in coming with us?"

Wufei looked at Heero. "Hn. Talk, okay, but I think Maxwell had the right idea about getting some sleep on the trip back."

"See, I do get to be right sometimes," Duo said. He yawned.

Heero smiled a little. "Come on.." he said. "If you fall asleep on the way, I'll just prop you up on a wall the rest of the trip."

Duo didn't bother to answer. Wufei smiled and watched them leave. "I'll meet you later," he said, and went off to find a cabin to nap in.

Curling up on a bunk with Trowa, Quatre said softly, "We ended something today that began before our own star ignited."

"We did?" Trowa replied. "So, what was it? Them? That..?" he asked.

"The ESO was a single entity. It was so old there is no way to describe it in any terms I understand. It was once intelligent... sentient... something like us, perhaps. But it had been alone for immeasurable spans of time. I don't know how it acquired the purpose of 'testing' new life forms. I only vaguely got that it believed itself to be the only life form that was immortal, therefore it tested for mortality. It would have gone on, testing, until it found something it couldn't kill. But the span of time, the alone-ness... whatever sanity it once had was long gone. It was so weary... yet it had no way to choose to stop what it was doing. I think... I think it could have resisted. I think it knew we were sending one of us to kill it. I think... I think it forgot it had any vulnerability... or maybe... maybe it just wanted to die."

Trowa sighed. "Maybe so..."he said, leaning down to kiss Quatre's mouth. "I'm just glad you are all right and everyone survived." Looking down at Quatre, Trowa said, "I think it will be all right to tell you, now. I talked to Oma before we left. I needed some advice and she gave me some. She also told me what she had done with you. I think there is a reason why you've been thinking religious thoughts lately. She hypnotized you, to help you not get lost. Then, she gave me the word to trigger the suggestion she put in your head."

Quatre blinked, wide-eyed. "Yes... now I remember that, at least I remember she was going to do it. I don't remember much about it except for counting backwards... That's what you did to bring me out of it here on the ship, right? And also out there...?"

"Yes," Trowa replied. "I also gave it to Wufei in case something happened to me. It also helped me as well."

"How did it help you, Trowa?

Trowa smiled. "I called you and your voice sounded so distant. I just felt something was wrong. So, I used the word. I don't know if it helped, but Wufei picked up that you were in trouble. By that time, I was shooting and shooting and kind of slipping away. When I said the word I thought of you, Quatre. That thought and that word kind of settled me down and calmed me enough to go on. Soon I was using it like a battle cry or something in my head."

Quatre sighed and hugged Trowa tightly. "We're all very lucky to be alive," he said. "Alive... that word is so wonderful. Now, my tired Trowa, you need to rest and so do I. Let's sleep... and dream of coming back to a world that has survived by a miracle."

Trowa nodded and then settled down to sleep.

Next... Epilogs....

Comments eagerly welcomed!

bonne & von

Comments? Email bonnejeanne@yahoo.com or vonceia@yahoo.com

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