Twisted Destiny
Episode 2: From Strange to Insane
by Masamune


Heero Yuy sat in a bathroom. He was pissed off and still a bit wet. He had managed to make it to the shore and inside of an Alliance seaport. He was now dressed in a loose fitting dock worker's outfit. Thoughts ran through his head like fire.

"How come I couldn't stop that Leo pilot?" he asked himself.

The memory of the Dober Gun's bullets riddling Wing and then the Leo suit carrying him to the bottom of the sea bit at Heero. The 2 Aries had been destroyed of easily enough. But a Leo! One free-falling single Leo had managed to best him. He had failed his first mission because of one masked man. Dr. J had made a mistake in picking him. Heero struck a box near him. And then he realized that there were two things he had to do.

"The next time I meet that pilot, I'll kill him," Heero spat. Not sure whom he was angriest at, himself or the enemy pilot. "But first I have to recover Wing. I can't leave it sitting at the bottom of the ocean for OZ to find."

Unfortunately this was easier said then done. For the seaport that Heero currently found himself at housed no deep-sea recovery vehicles whatsoever. He was contemplating this in the silence; the only sound was his breath and the beating of his heart. And then a gun cocked and he felt cold steel on his neck.

"Don't move," a voice whispered in his right ear. "I will blow your throat apart. You work here?" The voice sounded serious and deadly. Whoever was holding the gun meant business. But Heero really couldn't care. As far as he was concerned he was a failure, and that he would need to be destroyed anyway. The only thing that made him stand still was the thought of the masked man. He couldn't die here. He had to take his vengeance.

"No I don't," Heero replied coldly. "I can't help you."

A moment passed and then the voice, "Hmmm." Heero felt hands probe his body from the leg up until they reached his right hip. "So you carry a gun. You are no dock worker."

The hands took the gun attached to Heero's hip away and it clattered across the dark room. Heero felt the steel leave his neck and then the figure backed up. The shadow had snuck up on him perfectly and it was retreating just as silently. Heero stayed still, knowing a movement and his life would end. A door closed and the room was silent again.

The American pilot had just finished breakfast when his watch went off. Wiping his face Duo stood up and looked at the time. 5:30 already. The mess hall of the salvage ship was empty except for Duo and an empty container of cereal. Deathscythe was ready to go and for Duo it seemed that this cursed recovery operation was getting more annoying by the moment. For a moment Duo looked around the mess hall. He was hoping that he could talk to Howard, the guy that ran the salvage ship before he left. Howard however was a very late sleeper.

"I'll be back before he even wakes up," Duo laughed to himself. But for some odd reason the usual cocky pilot wasn't feeling to good about this mission. Maybe it was just a stupid premonition. Whatever the feeling was Duo quickly dismissed it and got into his Gundam. He sat in the cockpit for almost 10 minutes until he realizes he was falling asleep.

"Damn this mission," Duo said to the Deathscythe. "I must be the friggin most unlucky guy around. 6 in the morning." He brushed his long ponytail back and closed the hatch.

However at that exact moment Duo wasn't the unlucky guy around. Quatre's plan had not been working at all. He had moved all around the Arctic region but still had not found the Magnac Corps. He had stopped talking to his Sandrock hours ago and now had become very much contrasted to his usually cheerful self. The cockpit of Sandrock was warm but the harsh winter storm around him had almost completely wiped out any chance of his finding the Magnacs, even if they were straight ahead of him. The radar had gone out when he had entered the atmosphere and Quatre was no very frustrated. He had about given up hope when he came upon a little middle of nowhere cottage. Quickly he dashed to the warm house and knocked on the door. No response came.

"Come on come on," Quatre said as he frantically knocked on the door. "Someone has to be home here."

After almost five minutes the blonde pilot was ready to kick the door in. Angry as he could remember he ran around the house was he found what he had been looking for. A medium size window was open just a crack. Pulling with his near numb fingers Quatre pried open the window and hopped inside. Slamming the window shut he turned around to see an old fireplace with an old man sitting in an armchair, the back facing Quatre.

"Oh sorry sir," he said humbly. "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner and I really a sorry about breaking in and all but it is really cold outside and I needed to come in."

The old man didn't respond. What Quatre really had to do was use the bathroom. Guessing the man hadn't heard him he walked over to the armchair. Ignoring the strange smell that seemed to fill the room Quatre peeked around the side of the chair. Quickly he turned away, repulsed at what he had found. For a second Quatre was on the verge of tears but instead he ran from the room and found himself in what appeared to be the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess; old spoiled meat and dried blood splattered all over the counter tops. Obviously some kind of animal and just been slaughtered and the old man never got around to finishing it. The room stank much worse then the living room. Feeling sick and dizzy Quatre left the room. As he shut the door to the bloody kitchen he noticed for the first time that the house, although on one floor, was huge. As he walked through he noticed a grand dining room, guest rooms, a study and many rooms that appeared to be made for little children. The house made Quatre think of his old home. But this place, it was different from the Winner family house, it was so quiet and sad.

The Deathscythe noiselessly moved across the ocean floor. Branding his Beam Scythe, Duo waited for the Cancer unit to move in. He had watched the Alliance search fleet for almost two hours.

He had resorted to talking to Deathscythe in order to keep his sanity. "You know something Shinigami?" he called his old friend. "No matter what happens in this war there is always going to be one victor. You know who that is right?"

He leaned back and waited as if listening for a response. "Death, what a bitch she is. Always able to beat us no matter how good we are. No body can cheat Death - not forever." He sighed and looked out into the murky deep waters. "Ever since the beginning people have looked upon God as the all powerful force in the universe. Damn, people even believe that since humans populate the Earth Sphere so much that we are Gods now. But still, if the strongest entity in creation is God, it has to be Death. Otherwise."

Cancer and Pisces units moved across the deep ocean floor. As they scoured the ocean floor Zechs finished up a radio conversation with an Alliance official. As the monitor turned off Otto turned to Zechs.

"You know sir," he started respectfully, "There isn't anything wrong with our ship." Some how he knew that Zechs had another plan behind this. The masked man turned to face him.

"Of course, this sub is fully operational." He glanced at the radio. "But this way we can use their supplies and at the same time find that Gundam with our Cancer and Pisces."

"Oh shit!" the navigator called.

"What is it?" Otto turned to look at the radar control. The OZ units were disappearing from the screen, one by one. They weren't even at the area the Gundam was supposed to be in.

"What the hell is going on in there?" he called to the Red Cancer, the squad leader.

"We're under attack," Red Cancer responded. "But I can't see the enemy anywhere!"

Zechs grabbed the radio from Otto. He was visibly more upset then Otto had ever seen him. "What is the enemy? Is it a Gundam?" he yelled at the microphone.

"I'm pretty sure," the garbled response came back. "I'm pretty sure that there are Five of them here! They're so fast I can barely see them. Argh!" The radio went dead. The radar was blank.

Duo was still sitting inside of the Deathscythe. His conversation with the large, metal behemoth had been cut short when the battle erupted. Duo had watched his radar as first the OZ recovery team moved in. And just as he was about to strike the Cancer and Pisces engaged in battle with an invisible enemy. Duo had been amazed at the sheer speed the five machines had exhibited as they rushed around the far weaker mobile suits. To Duo it looked like they were just dotting about, zigzagging everywhere. It was almost like the five mysterious machines had been toying with the OZ mobile suits. And what surprised Duo the most was when all of a sudden all but one disappeared. The remaining suit turned and faced where the Deathscythe was hidden in the shadows. It was the first chance the American pilot had gotten to observe the mystery suit. It was a huge impressive suit, much larger than his Gundam. It's colors were shimmering gold and black, like a hornet. It was holding a long two handed Beam Saber and it's eyes glinted a soulless red. Then it had boosted away and Duo was left alone sitting besides the Wing. He then realized that the strange machine had a design completely alien to his or the Gundam Wing as well as the three other suits that had attacked OZ facilities around the world.

"Well, I really wonder who the hell that guy was."

Trowa Barton was fast asleep when the signal came from Heavyarms. Instinctively he had sat upright and grabbed hold of a nearby pistol, scanning the dark forest around him to make sure nobody was near. When he realized that it was only a transmission coming from Heavyarms he put his gun down and walked over.

"More blood for me to spill," he scoffed as he got into his Gundam. He flipped through the mission briefing. "Mission accepted," he said heartlessly and then got out of the cockpit again.

He stood on Heavyarms' chest for awhile. Looking of into the night. "Leo factory at Corsica, tomorrow at 1 o'clock IHT." He folded his thin arms over his chest and said quietly to himself, "I need to get something. To take my mind off of all of this. I need, a place where I can apply myself and…and do something with my life that might actually bring joy to other people."

That night he would not sleep.

Quatre looked back at the large cottage as the flames consumed the decadent, evil place. So much had happened there in such a short time. Quatre really did not know, but that house would influence his life in great ways. After searching the house and using the bathroom Quatre had forced himself to eat some of the meat from the kitchen. Although almost rotten and disgusting he ate until he was full.

He shook his head as his eyes filled with tears. It had actually tasted sort of good! The rotting decaying meat. After taking spare gas to Sandrock and filling it up he had returned in to the house for one last check of a map on the refrigerator. A little girl had drawn it, Marllina her name had read. It showed the house's location and also told Quatre that he was not far away from a supply station where he could contact the Magnac Corps. In the weather he would need to travel slowly but he would make it.

And then he had seen it, the note, sitting there on a counter top. He had walked over and picked it up. It was obviously written by the old man sitting in the living room. It was a fairly lengthy letter, almost a page long. Quatre had read it, dropped to the floor and began sobbing. Crying with a mixture of hate and sadness, that consumed him so totally that for the first time in his life he cursed everything in existence. And he had meant it too. He had hated the whole entire world at that moment, lying there on the kitchen floor. After a long time he rose to his feet and picked up a carving knife. For an instant he had thought about destroying himself. But instead he dashed into the living room where the old man sat and had went to cut the body up into pieces. Sitting in Sandrock now he laughed a bit, he didn't now why. He had completely annihilated the whole corpse of the man. Then throwing the knife away he had picked up chunks of the old man and brought them into the kitchen were he threw them on top of the other decaying meat. As flames consumed the house he looked at his hands, the blood was still stained there. All over his shirt and pants as well. He laughed again. Gripping the old man's letter in his hand he turned Sandrock away from the burning house, and went off into the darkness.

Heero ducked behind a corner as more people ran to the site of the explosion. He had used a high-powered sonar reader to find the location of Wing. He had found three highly powerful torpedoes attached to a ship not far from the area he was in. He had even set the timers exactly for 8 minutes. So as Heero Yuy sprinted through the seaport there was only one question he had: what the hell had caused that huge explosion? He put down a lot of explosives. But now the entire storage block area was lying in a rubble heap, nearby buildings and the command tower destroyed as well. He had barely gotten away in time and he had hijacked a car for his escape. But now he was near the end of the mission. He went to push the red button on the torpedo control panel. This was it, mission accomplished.

A very frustrated but somewhat calm Alex Vendetta kicked the dirt on a hill while he watched his half a million dollars, stolen arms cache burn. "It was that guy," he said to himself, remembering the encounter he had with Heero in the storage room. "Damn. Should have gotten rid of him right then and there. Oh well, not much I can do now except steal some more and kill some OZ assholes."

But something bothered him. He had seen the news bulletins regarding the five Gundams. And now he realized that the guy from the storage room was the pilot that had fought over the Pacific. But these pilots had the wrong idea; they just wanted to blindly take orders from whomever the hell it was that served as their commander. They didn't care if they were destroying society. True OZ had to be stopped but then the Gundams were - It was all too confusing for him. Looking up at the sky he wondered.

"The only thing I can do is find these pilots and talk to them. That's the only way I can ever find out what they're up to. And maybe - maybe they will see it my way. OZ is a threat to world security, but then again OZ could manage to take over the Earth sphere in a relatively non violent manner." His watch went off. "Oh no," he said as he ran to a nearby motorcycle, "my flight for Corsica leaves in a half hour."

"Deathcharges?!?" Otto yelled as warning lights went off on the OZ submarine. "Why the hell is the Marina bombing us?"

"They probably thought we were the ones attacking the recovery team," Zechs said very calmly. "Nothing we can do now but get out of here." A deathcharge hit the sub and he knew they didn't have much time. "Come on let's go!" he yelled as he led the way down a corridor.

Halfway to the escape pods another charge hit and the water began to fill up the sub. Zechs and Otto ducked into a room as the navigator quickly found another. Zechs heard Otto and the navigator's pods shoot out into the water. He quickly pressed a button and with a rush of speed the pod shot from the doomed submarine. Halfway to the surface Zechs heard a sound above him. It sounded as if a battle was raging on at the surface. Then a deathcharge detonated near his pod, he was thrown against the side of the pod. He could hear water seeping inside of the pod as it struggled to reach the surface, he felt blood on his face and then he blacked out.



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