Twisted Destiny - Episode 7: The Storm Breaks

Twisted Destiny
Episode 7: The Storm Breaks
by Masamune

Quatre looked out as the rain fell over the San Francisco skyline. Smog lined clouds and traffic, run down buildings and ghettos were all that Quatre saw. It was a terribly depressing sight to behold. He glanced at his watch, two hours before the conference. It was almost time to go; somehow he hoped that the red Gundam would be there. He still had not figured out what exactly he would do with the enemy he so loathed now. Then he finally realized that for two minutes Duo had been standing in the doorway of his room. He was wearing his priest like outfit and a golden cross was clearly visible.

"I was wondering how long you were going to stand there," Duo said. "You seemed sobered down. You know we leave for Edwards soon. And I found out that two Gundams that were attacking Lake Victoria have suddenly about faced and are heading in this direction."

Quatre stood up. Duo thought that the young Arabian seemed subdued, almost as if a trance. He glanced at Duo and sat down on the bed. Only one question did he ask, "The red one?"

Duo shook his head. He knew finally what had happened at Corsica. He saw that Quatre had known the Magnac troops somehow. He could feel Quatre's anger towards the red pilot although, Duo realized, that he was probably an ally. He sat down on the bed next to Quatre and gently put his arm around him.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "You'll be able to meet him soon. I'm sure he'll be at New Edwards. Listen, I'll take care of the Alliance mobile suits, you take down that red Gundam Ok?"

Quatre looked into the American's eyes. "Thanks," he managed. It was hard for him to hold back his tears. But for some reason he felt a lot better with Duo's arm around him. The braided pilot was an incredible person, he realized. /This decadent Earth doesn't deserve people like him/ "I'm just a little tired now, do you mind if I rest for a while before we leave?" he asked.

"Go ahead. By all means," Duo replied.

"We have to end this period of bloodshed."

"But what about those Gundam attacks!?!"

"I agree, total disarmament is the best way."

"We, the Alliance, were supposed to - "

Treize leaned over and whispered to Lady Une, "Have those two Gundams managed to escape Victoria? Their partners should be joining us soon."

Lady Une kept her voice low so noone else could hear her. "They should be here soon as well. As you said they made short work of the Victoria defenses and are heading this way. All five believe that this is a meeting for OZ leaders. However I'm not sure of that Shadow fellow and his Mirage friends. We couldn't find them anywhere."

"If I've gauged this Shadow correctly then he'll be here," Treize confidently said. "And he will most likely be trying to protect the Alliance leaders."

An explosion stopped Marshall Noventa mid-speech. An Alliance commander appeared on the large television screen. "The Gundams, the Gundams are here!" he shouted.

Shen-long showed no mercy as its Dragon Claws ripped through a Leo unit. Wufei turned and threw the mobile suit into a fuel tank causing a gigantic explosion to cry out over the base. He turned his attention to a squad of Aries when blasts from Beam Rifles and Bazookas sent the Shen-long falling backwards. With a curse Wufei looked up to see Heero blast away a group of Leos with Wing's Buster Rifle. Then the Aries from the rainy dark sky let loose a slew of missiles. With cat-like speed Wing leaped away, barely getting away from the missile fire. But as he was doing so more Leo fire rained down upon him.

"Shit," Heero said. "This defense is different then the ones we've encountered before."

"We can't afford to retreat now," Wufei said as he wiped sweat off his brow. "We'll just show these weaklings that safety doesn't necessarily come in numbers."

He set his Flame Thrower on a group on Aries but before he could lock on they disappeared into a ball of flame.

"What the hell?" Wufei cried.

He turned to see Heavyarms turn his Gatling Gun onto a group of unfortunate Leos. Wufei noticed that the red Gundam was taking heavy fire too.

"My name is Trowa Barton," the pilot of the red Gundam said. "We need to breach these defenses, not often am I willing to work with others but this time I have no choice."

He turned and released a barrage of Micro Missiles at the base sending debris flying into the rainy sky. Then Heavyarms staggered as an Oliphant blasted its flank. Wing took it down with a swing of his Beam Saber. Heero noticed Wufei struggling to take down a group of Aries, another blast hit Wing, Heero felt his face and saw his bloodied hand. He had to admit that the situation looked grim.

"Come on Nataku!" Heero heard Wufei yell. "We have to do this! We can't let OZ get away, not when they're so close."

Heero looked up to see a Leo aiming a Bazooka at him. Struggling with the controls he attempted to make Wing rise to its feet. Then a gash ripped through the enemy Leo and it exploded. A black shadow appeared from the flames.

"You Ok there buddy?" he heard a voice say. "You've got no need to worry, Shinigami is here!"

Wing fired its Mounted Vulcans, barley missing the Deathscythe but instantly destroying the Leo unit that had managed to sneak up on it.

"Don't get so cocky," Heero replied. "There are still plenty enough of them to kill off careless pilots."

Trowa turned the Heavyarms around. He felt relieved now that there were four of the Gundams here. The OZ defenses had retreated for the moment and it looked like the next time the Gundams attacked the Edwards base would fall. Then something caught his eye.

/Is that thing coming at me? / He wondered. With a grunt Trowa threw the Heavyarms to the ground, just before the Heat Shorter ripped threw the building behind him. Trowa looked up; there was another Gundam now. It was holding another Heat Shorter in its right hand. A large Buster Shield and gleaming Vulcans loomed on its shoulders. It was the Gundam Sandrock. A transmission appeared on Trowa's screen.

"You're lucky I'm not left handed," the young blond pilot wearing goggles on the screen said. His voice was half-cynical and half-serious. But he was one hundred percent pissed off. "I've been waiting for a long time to do this. But before we start, may I at least ask your name?"

"I have no name," Trowa responded.

"No name?" Quatre scoffed. "Is that what I should call you? Aucun nom, le Inconnu perhaps?

"Or kein Name, namenloses," Trowa added.

"Very witty. But now I'm going to kill you."

"If that's what you want then just try it," Trowa responded.

Heavyarms released its Army Knife and lunged at Sandrock. Quickly Sandrock dodged and the Army Knife cut the air meaninglessly. Quatre spun and attempted to drive his Heat Shorter into the Heavyarms cockpit area but Heavyarms grabbed the hand of Sandrock and stopped him halfway. For a moment they locked in a power grip, Quatre slowly losing control.

"I'll kill you - you bastard!" he shouted as Trowa knocked his arm down. Heavyarms slashed at Sandrock, knocking it to the dirt. Quatre saw the Army Knife pointed right at the cockpit. Suddenly he felt a burst of anger, more intense then before at the red foe.

"Go ahead then," he spat. "Go ahead and finish me. Just like you killed Rashid!" But Heavyarms didn't move. "Come on you bastard!" Quatre yelled. Slowly Heavyarms stood up and retracted its Army Knife. It turned around and left Quatre on the wet gravel floor.

"What's between those two guys?" Wufei asked as the Deathscythe slashed through an Aries.

"The red one killed some of Quatre's friends during the Corsica attack," Duo explained.

"Then it's just for revenge?" the Chinese warrior asked in amazement. "We have a mission to carry out here. If they want to fight they should do it on their own time."

Heero turned just as an escaping shuttle flew off towards the west. He locked on. It was an OZ shuttle, most likely carrying the fleeing OZ leaders. With a grin he aimed his Buster Rifle.

/This was it, the mission accomplished at last/ He pulled the trigger. The shuttle destroyed instantly, the blast so devastating that not even a piece of metal fell to the ground. Wing looked up into the rain. For the first time in a long time Heero felt happy.

Then he saw the Heavyarms locking on to another escaping shuttle. He had barely noticed it in the clouds. Heero's Buster Rifle was too overheated to be used again. He would let the red Gundam handle the other shuttle.

As Trowa set his sights on the shuttle Quatre was fuming inside of his Gundam.

/How could he have lost to the enemy after all of his suffering? / He felt as if the red pilot had been mocking him while standing over Sandrock, slowly retracting his Army Knife. Bringing Sandrock to its feet he looked through his goggles at the Heavyarms take aim at a shuttle. /I'll have you this time. You'll pay for killing Rashid and Abdul/

Grabbing his Heat Shorter from the dirt he boosted at Heavyarms with a yell. Trowa had first noticed the escaping shuttle after Heero had shot down the other escaping jet. He was somewhat upset about his encounter with the Gundam pilot that considered him an enemy. Now with the rain pounding down on his Gundam he raised his Gatling Gun and prepared to destroy the fleeing shuttle. Then he sensed something was wrong, turning he saw that the blond pilot had retrieved his weapon and was now lunging right at him. Moving as fast as the mammoth Heavyarms would allow he attempted to dodge the incoming attack.

The Heat Shorter pierced the upper left shoulder of the Heavyarms, frustrated at his miss, for Quatre had been aiming for the cockpit; he kicked the legs out from underneath the Gundam. Heavyarms fell with a crash and Quatre heard Duo telling the other pilots to back off and let 'Quatre finish it'. He brought the Heat Shorter up over Sandrock's head and with a swift movement brought it down directly towards the cockpit.

"What's going on here?"

"I don't know! The Specials and some others are just attacking us."

"What about that blue mobile suit?"

"I'm sorry sir but we have no data on it. It seems to be a new model."

"So Zechs how do you like the Zodiac?" Otto asked as the battle raged on around them. They had been "conducting military practice formations" over Nairobi when the signal to attack the Alliance had come. The OZ forces had caught the Alliance so off guard that almost 60% of the Nairobi Alliance forces had been annihilated. But the rest were fighting like madmen and refused to surrender, despite Zechs' constant offers.

"It's superb Otto," Zechs replied. "I've never seen a mobile suit with such power and speed."

The Zodiac had been unveiled to Zechs just hours before. It was larger then most normal suits, but not so much so. It was a dark blue tint and had a grayish color about it. It was heavily armed with Wrist Vulcans, two Dober Blasters, which were smaller but equally powerful versions of a Dober Gun, but Zechs found the Beam Sabers to be the most interesting weapon. He recalled asking Otto about them when he had first seen them.

"Aren't they a little too big to be Beam Sabers?" Zechs had asked.

Otto had nodded and replied, "They are somewhat akin to the Beam Katana that the golden Gundam, Mirage, is using. These are slightly less powerful but can be used at greater speed."

Now he swung one around in an arc taking out two Leos at once. The Alliance forces were hopelessly crushed. The Gundam known as 01 had gunned down Noventa and the other officials. The one Zechs fought over the Pacific. Suddenly he felt frustrated, frustrated for not having beaten that Gundam. /Calm down Zechs/ he thought to himself /With Zodiac you will be able to fight him next time and win/

Trowa had looked up to see the Heat Shorter hovering over the cockpit.

/So this is how it ends? / He had thought.

Then as the blade swung down something landed behind the Heavyarms. Trowa looked and saw a golden arm restraining Sandrock.

"Fool," he heard a voice say. "Why would you so willingly your teammate?" The Mirage snatched the Heat Shorter and threw it across the battleground. Besides the first golden suit stood four, perfectly identical to the Mirage. Suddenly they boosted in different directions, as though on cue, and landed near a different Gundam. Trowa saw one of the golden suits hovering above him like an illusion.

Then the voice came again and Gundam pilots saw Shadow's image appear on their screen. "Hmph," he snorted. "It seems you've made a terrible mess of this job, but no matter. We, the Mirages, challenge you, Gundams, to individual duels. Seeing as how you've just destroyed the Alliance pacifists and no reinforcements will be here for a while I believe this is a perfect time to test your skills." The leader seemed to be the one that had paired up with Wufei, he drew his long Beam Katana and the others followed suit.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Duo asked loudly. "We just killed the OZ officials, you know the corrupt guys."

Shadow didn't flinch. "It was an incredibly sharp ploy that OZ pulled off. I was convinced for awhile too. But check the news reports if you don't believe me."

"He's right," Trowa said as the news images appeared on his screen.

"Marshall Noventa, the leader of the Alliance, was just convincing the leaders to disarm the Alliance when we came," Wufei said in shock.

Heero shuddered. /No way! Not another mission that he had botched. What the fuck was he doing? Why was he even fighting when he had destroyed the only hopes of peace? / He shook his head in anger. He grasped the self- detonation button on wing. /It would probably be for the best/ he thought. He looked at the button and then the golden Mirage standing before Wing, hovering like a judge. He had to somehow make up for his mistakes. Killing himself would be the easy way out, not the soldier's way. He put the self-detonation device away. Then drew Wing's Beam Saber. He saw that the other four Gundams had their weapons out to.

Wufei saw as the four other Mirages took off instantaneously, dotting about the sky. He watched as his companions hopelessly chased after them, each firing from their Machine Cannons and then flying after their respective enemy. He turned and saw that the Mirage in front of him was still waiting.

"This battle is pointless you know," he told the pilot. "I think we are allies, and that we should not be fighting each other." He shook his head. "But I NEVER turn down a duel."

The pilot responded; it was Shadow. "I paired up with you Chang for that exact purpose. I knew that out of all the pilots you would be the only one that I could compete with on an even ground. How about the best 2 out of 3 wins eh?"

Wufei smiled. "Fine with me. But don't ever call me Chang again."

"But I thought that was your name," Shadow half mocked. "Oh well anyway, let round 1 begin Chang." And with that he rushed at the Shen-long.

Trowa fired at his enemy for what seemed like eternity. The golden enemy flew recklessly about the cloudy sky. All of Trowa's shots seemed to miss it.

Over the intercom Duo said, "Jesus! These guys are sickly fuckin' fast! I've never seen anything like it."

Trowa couldn't even lock on to his target as it flew about the sky. Then he saw one of the Mirages burst at the Sandrock with a surge of ungodly speed, Beam Katana ready to strike him down. The Arab saw the dash too and in vane attempted to dodge its attacker. Then at the last instant possible the Mirage boosted up and barely cleared Sandrock's head. Then it dawned on Trowa. /They aren't attacking us. They're just flying around/

Heero seemed to have figured it out to for he spun and shot his Mounted Vulcans at the Mirage that Duo was fruitlessly hacking at. The bullets seemed to pass right through the enemy. Then Heero, Trowa and Quatre stopped fighting. The Mirages kept flying around and then one lunged at Trowa.

"What are you doing you idiot?" Duo yelled. But the Mirage again veered out of Heavyarms path just before colliding. Duo too stopped fighting. Then he finally said, "Hey they aren't REAL! They're illusions! Like some kind of program, they're fake." He waved at one of the speeding Mirages. His hand passed right through it. "See?" he turned and asked Quatre.

Quatre however was looking right past Shinigami. Calmly he replied, "Not all of them are fake."

Trowa turned to see the Shen-long and one of the Mirages fiercely fighting each other. The huge Beam Glaive swung through the air each time only to be blocked by the Beam Katana. Wufei boosted back and spun nearly lopping the Mirage's head off. But the golden suit was far too fast and as the battle continued Trowa could tell that Wufei was getting tired. Then he was aware of Wing turning into Bird Mode.

"Where are you going?" Quatre asked. Heero didn't respond but instead flew away, quickly leaving the rainy battlefield. "Shouldn't we help him?" Quatre asked, obviously concerned for Wufei's safety.

"No it's his duel," Trowa responded. "It's his fight not mine."

He felt Quatre glaring at him from underneath his goggles. "Don't think I'm going to let this rest with you. Understand?" Trowa didn't respond. "Hey did you hear me?!?" Quatre shouted.

Wufei let the sweat roll down his forehead. /God he's so quick. I can barely see him move/

The Mirage lashed out, landing a square blow on Shen-long's shield. Again the Beam Katana sizzled through the air and Wufei barely parried it with his Beam Trident. It seemed as if Wufei was on the ropes. Then, with a spark of life, the Shen-long hacked its Beam Glaive at the Mirages legs, knocking the machine to the wet ground. But the Mirage landed on its hands and flipped itself up doing a somersault type flip. It landed softly and as it did so, kicked the legs from underneath the Shen-long. As Wufei felt himself falling and saw his Beam Glaive go skittering across the rainy battlefield. He looked up and saw the Beam Katana glaring down, just above the cockpit. He had lost.

The Mirage stood in the rain, Shadow retracted the Beam Katana. Making sure the other three remaining Gundams were at a distance he turned off the Illusion Control, and the four buzzing fake Mirages disappeared. He stood for a moment and then punched in the Gundams' frequency.

"So you figured out my little illusion trick" he softly said. "It's not very good, but it keeps the enemy confused for long enough, as I have just proved to you. I see that the pilot known as Heero Yuy has left, oh well I was hoping to speak to him for a bit. But now I must be going."

He turned and offered the Shen-long his hand. "Come Chang," he soullessly said. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I just won one round. You still have the next to look forward to. You were probably tired from the fight earlier. Come on don't be so quiet." Wufei didn't respond. Shadow shook his head. "Chang, in this world we don't have enough people like you. Noble, proud people that aren't fools. Please Chang, don'' be a fool. Keep fighting, improve, I'll be back for our 2nd round some day soon."

The Mirage's Vernier Packs roared to life and soon the golden Gundam was as small as a drop of rain in the sky.

Author's Note: Ok that's all for Episode 7. I've been trying to keep the episodes a certain length but in upcoming ones they might become longer or shorter. I also realized that many of the readers might not know exactly which weapons I'm talking about during the battles. Well here is a short list of terms I often use: Beam Glaive- Wufei's lance type weapon, Machine Cannons- those little guns on each Gundam's head, Gatling Gun- Heavyarms' huge gunarm, Buster Rifle- Wing's Beam Cannon, Vulcans- those spinning guns like on Wing Zero, usually contained in the shoulders, Beam Saber- DUH, Dober Gun- A large beam cannon, the Tallgeese 2 has one, Bazooka- those big mounted guns Leos sometimes carry, Beam Katana- just imagine a LONG Beam Saber. Ok those are some of the weapons. Notice Quatre and Trowa speaking French and German? Oh yah I finally realized that Shen-long is actually just Shenlong with no slash. Oops we'll just pretend that I was right all along Ok? Shinigami is what Duo calls himself. Duo and Quatre?!?! I'm straight but I couldn't help it. I sort of feel that I got to keep the characters as much in character as my twisted mind will allow. Quatre with drugs? Quatre going nuts? I must be going nuts! Well I finished EPISODE 7 and now I have no idea about what I'm going to do next! Damn I can't think ahead for the life of me. So I may be out of commission with a case of writer's block. But fear not! I will come up with something. As always send comments, flames whatever to MasamuneEHS@hotmail.com. Damn someone remind me to not make these notes so long.

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