I feel like Emeril Lagasse has been at my house and ordered us to 'kick it up a notch'....

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

Part Three: Evil stirs, New players, Heero...

"He'll come," Alfa muttered softly, as the small shuttle left L2. She glanced at the young man who sat in the other cockpit chair. "Maybe for all the wrong reasons, but he'll come. That's what matters."

"Duo would make a formidable enemy," Wufei remarked. "Believe me, you don't want to find out how much."

Alfa rubbed her forehead and then shot a glare at the Chinese pilot. "You may not believe this, Chang, but I don't want anyone as an enemy."

Wufei smiled slightly. Alfa said nothing more and the trip was finished in silence.

There was already another shuttle in the bay that Alfa did not recognize. Docking, she saw that the markings were from the Winner Corporation and nodded to herself. Little Quatre moved quickly when he chose too. Wufei also noticed the markings. Secretly, he felt a sense of relief that he would not be alone in this, as he had been before. The exchange with Duo had brought up the pain of his decision to join with Mariemaia, something he could not regret for the same reasons the others might think, but which had cost him a great deal in trust with the only four other people he felt any kinship with.

As they went inside, he observed the surroundings. The station was not bright new and shiny. It showed signs of wear, though it was as clean as minimum human upkeep and simple bots could keep it. There were no deep pockets backing this. It made Wufei feel more comfortable, in a perverse way.

Alfa took him into the research block, hitting a wall comm as they stopped in a corridor.

"Oma!" she said. "Where are you?"

"Commissary," came a quick answer.

"This way," Alfa gestured, leading the way again. She moved very quickly.

Entering the small room used for meals by the personnel on the station, Wufei saw an African-descended woman of about forty-five, sitting with two familiar faces - Quatre and Trowa.

The woman stood up as they approached. "Oma, this is Chang Wufei," Alfa said briefly.

The black woman smiled, holding out a hand. Wufei surprised himself by taking it briefly. His respect for elders was deeply ingrained. He realized even as he released the warm grip of the one called Oma that Alfa's youthful appearance had the effect of inducing him to treat her more casually.

"Chang Wufei," Oma smiled slightly. She then turned to Alfa, handing her a small vial of liquid, which she took from a pocket. "Take your medicine."

Alfa scowled but took the vial, emptying it and tossing it accurately in a disposal bin on the other side of the table. Alfa turned to Quatre. "Thank you for showing up."

Quatre nodded. "Alfa, this is Trowa Barton."

Alfa looked at the young man facing her, seeming to miss nothing. She nodded. "I appreciate that you came," she said evenly.

Trowa looked at Alfa, his green eyes finding hers. He smiled very slightly and simply nodded.

Alfa tilted her head, then glanced at Oma. "Did Oma give you the tour yet?"

Oma shook her head. "Not yet."

"Not that it's a long tour," Alfa added. "Most of the space here is taken up with the workshop. But there are quarters for you, in fact there's a small quadrangle, you can pick your own rooms if you want."

"Thank you," Quatre said. "Are we... waiting for anyone else before we are briefed?"

Alfa shook her head. "Not waiting, no, but I wouldn't be surprised if Maxwell showed up in the near future."

"And what about Heero?" Trowa asked. "Was he contacted as well?"

Alfa face stilled, becoming a cool mask. "No."

Wufei watched this exchange with interest.

Trowa stood as he noted Alfa's reaction. He bowed slightly to her, as a question was answered in his mind. "I'm sorry if I've offended you." he said, quietly. He then looked back at Alpha and thought. 'I know where he gets it, now.'

Alfa rubbed her forehead. Then she looked at Trowa. "No you didn't offend me. You asked a logical question. The answer isn't logical." She looked from Trowa to Quatre, then to Wufei. In some very strange way, she thought, it feels like they are all my children, and what I've done to my son, I did to them also, if in a lesser degree.

"Originally, the plan included all five pilots. The plan has been changed," she said. "You should not be concerned about offending. You are about to go on a very dangerous mission," she said, forcing herself to say the words.

Quatre said softly, "I understand why you changed the plan."

Trowa glanced down at Quatre and then back to Alfa. He nodded a little to himself. "We have done this before. You should know that I came because Quatre would be here and because I was curious." His green eyes glanced up at Oma and then back to Alfa.

Alfa looked at each of them again. "If I were your commander, I would tell you what stupid reasons those are for risking your life. But the truth is I don't care why you are here, just that you are."

To Oma she said, "Show them the place. Get them what they need, if we have it. There will be a briefing in one hour in the mobile suit hangar."

Then she turned to leave the room.

"Ever the diplomat," Oma remarked, rolling her eyes. "Excuse her. She has to go pump some iron or something."

Alfa paused, and said without turning around. "Shut up, Oma."

Then she was gone.

Quatre looked after the auburn-haired woman. "She's in a great deal of pain, isn't she?" he said softly.

Oma looked down at the blond Arabian with a softer expression. "Probably. But I doubt she knows it."

"She knows," Trowa said, softly. He looked at Oma and then to Wufei and Quatre. "She just doesn't have the time to think about it. I would like the tour, anyone else?"

"Yes," Quatre said. Wufei simply waited for the tour to begin.

Oma nodded. "We don't have time to think about it either," she said. "Come on, I'll give you the nickel tour... no guide book on this one."

Oma led the way out of the commissary.

The tour included a wing of research labs, living quarters including the quadrangle that had been mentioned, storage and maintenance indicated with an arm-wave, and the mobile suit hangar. The huge enclosure was dark, and its contents a mystery. "This is where you'll come in a hour for the briefing." The tour ended with the station's control center. In addition to the standard monitoring and communications areas, there was a special console set up for receiving deep space signals.

"That's about it," Oma said. "Now in accordance with the boss's wishes, is there anything I can get you?"

Wufei shook his head.

"No, thank you." Trowa replied.

"I brought what I need in my shuttle." Quatre said. He glanced at Trowa and Wufei. "Let's go pick out rooms and get settled."

"Thank you, Oma," Trowa said, walking behind Quatre.

Quatre ran back to the shuttle and got a bag from inside, meeting the others at the quadrangle. This square-shaped area had living quarters around it, all opening to the central square. Wufei chose a room close to the entrance corridor and went inside, shutting his door.

Quatre looked around. "How about this one?" he said. "Do you want to take the room next door, or...?"

Trowa looked down at Quatre. "Could I stay with you?" he asked, taking Quatre's hand as he pulled him inside and shut the door behind them.

He checked the monitors to see where she was, and found her in the small, spartan quarters she shared with Oma. She was sitting on the bed, cross-legged, eyes closed. She often did this for an hour or more, meditating or whatever it was she was doing. O decided this was the time he'd been waiting for, with Oma occupied by the Gundam pilots, and his fellow scientists on rest cycle.

Walking back through the dark hangar, he looked up at the massive machines that stood there, hidden by shadows only from eyes that did not know what to look for. The engineer in him loved the machines. They were beautiful, powerful... they actually had managed to improve on the originals, even on the second-generation suits. It was too bad.

His huge frame moving with amazing quiet, he made his way down a corridor quickly and entered the control center. No one was on duty, another oversight, but one attributable to the lack of funds supporting this operation. All the money was put into the Gundams, and the only people working here consisted of Alfa and Oma, the scientists, and a very small group of dedicated technicians that Alfa had gathered. That meant that there were times when no one was monitoring the control room, such as now, when the proximity sensors and comm had been put on an auto-forward function that would alert Oma or someone else by using the internal comm system

Master O bent over one console, his hulking frame dwarfing it, his large, blunt-fingered hands moving delicately over the controls. It was the matter of seconds to set up a small, encrypted, communications burst, to be aimed at a particular receiver on Earth. This could not be trusted to anyone other than the nominal head of their tiny organization, the invisible, tenuous group who internally called themselves the Welcoming Committee, though the name had never been committed to any fixed form, be it letter, journal, note, or computer file.

The message was simple. Coordinates for the station, and the words, "Reception in danger. Crashers have arrived. Send the cops."

Once sent, the record of the message was erased from the system logs. Then O left the room, making his way back to his own quarter to prepare for the briefing. It was inconceivable that after all their work, after all that had been done to assure ESO a smooth path, straight to the decadent, unworthy Earth, that this ghost from the past should somehow succeed in ruining the plan. He'd never believed she could do it, until he'd seen the two Gundam pilots arrive on the station, seen Alfa come in with Chang Wufei - Wufei! That little serpent. After all they'd done, taking each setback and turning it once more to their purposes, to have things reach such a pass, and so close... so soon before the arrival of the pure ones...But it was not too late to abort this fledgling movement. Time enough to nip it here, leaving humanity open to the pure ones, the ones who would finally cleanse the Earth and Space around it from the contamination called man.

Her first impulse was to call Noin, or Sally, but reading over the note, she bit her lip, then reached for a secure line and called a private number. There would be no answer, she could only leave a message, but it would be received, she had no doubt of that.

"Wind is needed," she said to the recorder at the other end of the line. "It's urgent. Here are the coordinates..."

A few moments later, Lady Une received a call over her secure line. A male voice said, "Yes."

"Thank you for calling," she said, closing her eyes in silent relief. "I have just received a tip from a source I trust. The substance is that someone had been secretly building a small number of special mobile suits. These suits are apparently... Gundams."

The long fingers of the platinum-haired man drummed on the edge of his armrest. They stopped immediately and his blue eyes opened as he heard the word ... Gundam. Mentally, the man formerly known as Zechs Marquise cursed, 'Treize, you don't die easily, do you?' "I'm going," he replied, as he felt his heart race with the thrill of anticipated battle, and die at the pain of anticipated destruction. "Special instructions?" he asked.

There was a pause as Une tried to collect her thoughts. "I would rather keep this hush-hush," she said, "Though that may not be possible. I shudder to think what the knowledge of the existence of Gundams would result in, were it public. I'll send Sally and Noin to back you up..."

"No, don't," Wind replied. "I'll go alone and contact you later," he added. 'Why?' he thought. 'What prompted you to say that?' He stood up. 'Doesn't matter. Just feels right.' "I'll handle this."

"Very well..." Une replied, then there was a slight pause and he could hear an intake of breath at the other end. "No..."

Zechs looked down at the screen as he was taken a bit by surprise. "Explain." he said.

Her eyes had gone off of his image and to the side, probably something on her desk. Turning back to him, her expression was frankly upset. "While waiting for your call, and as we've been speaking, I've been trying to contact certain individuals... it seems that Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton, Chang Wufei and Duo Maxwell are all unreachable..."

Zechs frowned. "What about Heero Yuy?" he asked, not having heard the name among the ones spoken by Lady Une.

"On a transport to L2... he acknowledged my message and said he would contact me when he reached the colony. I... gave no details, just requested a call back." Une looked at Zechs through the screen. "I don't like it that the four of them are missing, and apparently just recently. It could be a coincidence, they may all have legitimate reasons for being out of contact but... Chang Wufei has apparently left a message at his contact number that he will be away for sometime. Quatre Winner also..."

"Too much to be a coincidence." Zechs said. 'Could they be launching another revolution?' he thought. 'Something independent of the last one.' He took a breath. 'Possible, but for what purpose and why without Heero?'

"I cannot believe any of them would be involved in any kind of action..." Une said aloud, as if following his thoughts, or as if her own mirrored his. "Be careful. If you encounter any of them... Trowa Barton has done infiltration before. It may be that they are just ahead of us..."

"Acknowledged. You can reach me at this code," he said, preparing to leave.

Une nodded. "Please report when you can. Be careful... Wind."

"I will," Zechs answered and broke the connection. He then programmed a short message to Noin and left.

Heero Yuy took the one bundle he called luggage down from the transport storage rack and headed towards the communications terminal to contact Duo. The message from Lady Une had returned the ghost of his perpetual scowl to his face, but at the last moment, he remembered to acknowledge the young transguide woman as she welcomed him to the L2 main colony.

Finding an empty booth, he placed a call to Duo Maxwell. He was looking forward to spending some time alone with Duo and perhaps rediscovering what having fun meant

The call was answered by Duo's message screen. "Hi, if you don't know who I am, you don't need to be calling me anyway! If you do, then put in your code now for your own special, secret, private love-o-gram!" Duo said on the recording, dropping his voice in an exaggeratedly sexy way on the last few words. Then the screen went blank with a prompt for personal code.

Heero shook his head, slightly and then tapped in his code.

The braided boy's face looked back at him. "Heero... man, I was hoping I'd be here when you called but," he shrugged. There was something in his eyes, and his voice that spelled tension. Duo was either angry, worried or upset, but masking it with his usual light attitude, only letting his very real regret at missing the call come through, but Heero could see things that most other people couldn't by now. "Look, I know it sucks, but something has come up. I'm hoping it will be easy to take care of. I have to go check something out and then I'll be right back before you even know I'm gone. Come on to the apartment, I've got food in the fridge for you. I'll be back soon." Duo then smiled cheerfully, and the recording ended, but not before showing a split-second flash of unease in the violet eyes.

Heero frowned as he felt the tension in his body click into place by degrees. His face took on the impassive mask, and the dark feelings that he thought he was coming to terms with, arose within him. Something was threatening Duo. Something put that look in Duo's eyes. Something would pay.

A small voice within him cried out, 'You don't have to kill anymore!' Heero's head inclined down and his cobalt blue eyes peered up through the curtain of chestnut brown hair before him. "This is personal." he muttered to himself. He did not notice the crushed material of the bag clutched in his hand and only barely remembered the call from Lady Une.

He looked up suddenly as a chill crawled down his spine. 'Can this be connected?' he thought, 'Or am I looking for an excuse?' He placed another call. This one was to Lady Une.

The call was answered immediately. "Heero!" Une said, feeling immeasurably relieved to have gotten in touch with at least one of the Gundam pilots.

"Lady Une," he replied, evenly.

"Thank you for calling me. I apologize for disturbing you, I realize you are a civilian now." Une said, trying quickly to decide what she wanted to tell him. Of all the people in the universe, Heero Yuy had done his share and more for the good of mankind. It wasn't fair to burden him if this were something he was not already involved in. "I've been trying to reach Duo Maxwell and Quatre Winner," she said. "I wanted to ask if you would let them know I have been trying to do so, if you should be in a position to see either of them in the near future."

Deep blue eyes looked into Lady Une's as Heero registered her words. In all of this, he did not hear what he wanted in this scant information she had given him. Everything about it screamed like a demon to every nerve in his body. A lesser person would have shivered. "What is happening?" he asked, having no time or patience for politeness.

Une saw the look and swallowed unconsciously. Then her demeanor changed slightly. "I'm sorry, Heero. It's Preventer business. I'm not at liberty to tell you the details of anything we are doing. I would if I could do so. I will tell you this, however, and this is more than I should on an unshielded line. It is important that I get in touch with the other Gundam pilots. When I can talk to all of you, I will tell you what I can."

Heero felt his chest expand and contract as he held back the rage that threatened to overtake him. His mind sifted the words she said, and on some level he understood that she was right. "Fine," he said. "I'm going this number." he added, sending her the code. "Duo will not be there. He left me a message. I might not be there long. Quatre might be at the circus with Trowa Barton. Did you check there?" he asked, watching her closely as she responded.

Une's eyes betrayed a flicker of her own concern. "Yes, we tried there." she said, realizing she had to get off the line with Heero Yuy now, or he would get everything she knew out of her in a few seconds. "Trowa and Chang Wufei are also currently unreachable. It is probably just a coincidence. Did Duo's message indicate anything about when he expected to return?"

Heero felt locks click into place in his head as he watched Lady Une's expression. He shook his head. "No. He just said that he would return... soon," he said. Then, Heero paused a second, knowing that the woman was in an uncomfortable position. 'Yeah, but Duo could be in danger.' he thought and snapped down the feeling quickly. Instead, he looked back at the screen and said. "Lady Une, I am going to Duo's apartment now. I understand your position. If you want to me to meet you before I leave to find Duo, call me there."

Une took a breath, then said, "Heero, do what you have to do. I have an... agent in the field on his way out there. I may have him contact you if that seems feasible. But... I won't ask you to wait for that, I do not know if he will be able to do so. The only thing I will ask you to do, is be careful."

'She knows!' Heero thought, confirming his suspicions. "I'll do what I can, Lady Une. Thank you." he said.

Une nodded, looking at him with soft worry in her eyes, before cutting the connection.

Heero watched as the screen went blank. He turned back to the port and saw that the people milling about no longer had faces. They were once again a sea of strangers and he was the sliver that moved around and through them, nearly invisible. In a few minutes, he found himself standing at the apartment of Duo Maxwell. He knew what he would find, but hoped to be wrong and wonderfully surprised. He was not. Duo was gone.

The empty apartment carried a number of messages to Heero's eyes. The usually messy environment showed signs of having been straightened - that would have been Duo preparing for his arrival. It wasn't so neat that anyone else could have done it - he spotted a pair of underwear peeping out from under the sofa.

In the refrigerator were stocks of food and a bottle of champagne.

On a low table in the den, however, was the single thing that spoke most eloquently of how wrong the silence was. There, neatly placed, was a thin, patterned rice-mat, and on it, a beautiful little Japanese tea service, waiting for hot water. The tea, cups and cloth napkins were placed precisely for traditional tea ceremony. Duo had done this, in preparation for his coming. Then something had made him leave the house empty and waiting.

Heero walked over to and dropped his bag to the floor. Seeing the tea service, he felt his heart prickle with tiny shards of pain. Suddenly, the enormity of the situation hit him and Heero feel to his knees. The ghost of the little girl rose before him and once again offered her flower and her love unconditionally. Looking up, Heero shook off the memory, finding some comfort in the dishes and what they represented.

Then he stood up and went from room to room again to make sure that he was feeling was what was actually happening.

The rest of the apartment was the same - neatened, but empty. There were three exceptions.

On the bed, two silk kimonos in dark, traditionally male patterns were laid out as if ready to put on.

The bedroom closet was open and a few things had fallen or been tossed to the floor, and a small bag that Duo had used occasionally for carrying gear was lying open, unzipped, as if he'd gotten something out of it hastily. The contents of the bag included stealth devices, lock picks, small radios, explosive detonators and some empty gun clips. There was no gun or live ammunition.

On the small desk, Duo's laptop sat, not in its usual pushed-back position, covered with papers and junk, but pulled forward as if it had just been used. In fact it was not even turned off, but in stand-by mode.

Heero touched the pad of the laptop and watched as it flickered on.

It only took Heero a few minutes to crack Duo's passcode, though to be fair, he probably hadn't intended to keep out anyone but the casually curious. Looking at the records of recent activity, Heero found an enormous amount of data accumulated from recent hacking trips into various Earth and Colony-based mainframes. There was too much to sort through quickly but a great deal of it seemed to be old information, something about the original mobile suit project, personnel files... death records. Also a whole file of articles about his namesake, the late Heero Yuy. It would take hours to review all the information.

Heero glanced through the Heero Yuy articles for something that he had not seen or heard of already. At first, the thought occurred to him that Duo might be gathering some information to familiarize himself with the fallen leader because of him. He discarded the idea as his mind refocused on what was going on. He tagged it as being relevant, but perhaps not in the way he had thought. 'Why would he drag out Mobile Suite technology and history when we just destroyed all of the mobile suits?' Heero thought.

In the mobile suit files, something caught his eyes. Most of the files seemed to be personnel records, as if Duo were searching for information about someone connected with the project. Heero noticed the names of those men who had become the scientists known later only by their initials, including Doctor J. He also noticed a mention of a contractor, Howard.... What seemed to be missing, and conspicuous by its absence, was any record of the project coordinator. Looking at the logs of Duo's hacking trips, Heero saw that he had tried over and over to get this information, but it had apparently been erased long ago and the tracks to well covered to do more than guess that there had once been someone involved in the project who's existence had been wiped away by those then in power.

"Hn," Heero muttered. "Howard," he said, remembering the engineer from the war. "Wonder if he's still around?" he added.

The information was in Duo's address book. "Howard -- warehouse..." and directions, and a note that he doubted that the guy would be there for more than another couple of months.

'Long shot,' Heero thought, but got the address any way. He then looked the information over one last time before leaving to check out Howard.

Next... a Wind is coming... Where is Duo?... Heero's search... and Shiva....

Comments eagerly welcomed!

bonne & von

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

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