Here’s a fiction inspired partly by a renewed sense of sadism and evilness on the author’s behalf, partly by a furious Muse or two. ::dodges the rotten fruit thrown by all Muses involved with the production of this fiction:: Enjoy!
/thoughts/
Libra was gone: the colonies and their home planet were at peace with one another at last. And the five pilots of the mighty machines of Gundanium alloy, who had fought for this peace and forged it with their blood and sweat and tears…Well, they were on the run once more. As Duo so eloquently put it, “They’re just not happy unless they’ve got a goddamn fight on their hands!”
Quatre lay there on the bed, recovering from the wound that Dorothy Catalonia had dealt him. “Don’t worry about it. They’re so caught up in peace now, they can’t train pilots or build mobile suits good enough to catch or kill us without breaking their own laws.”
Heero knelt on the floor beside Duo, dark eyes closed, rubbing the American’s back with hands strong enough to tear steel. Duo himself lay quietly, his sultry violet eyes half-closed in sleep, pleasure and complete trust in the Japanese boy. Trowa sat by Quatre in a chair, holding the injured one’s hand in an uncharacteristic show of emotion as though it would make Quatre heal faster. And Wufei stood just inside the closed door, leaning against the wall and carefully not looking at Heero and Duo. The austere walls glowed in the gentle light with a soft buttermilk-cream tone to them: Wufei had quietly asked Lady Une for a room with tinted walls. White was traditionally the Chinese color of mourning, and even in this modern day and age you could not find a single hospital in China with white walls. Lady Une agreed, and Quatre and his friends had been hidden in these five adjoining rooms from the “peacekeeping” force on MO-II.
“We don’t have to worry about pilots of our capabilities showing up out of the blue,” Heero mused. Duo’s eyes opened.
“Hmm? No… not unless Zechs made it out of there, and if that’s the case he’d find himself executed faster than any of us, I think. After all, he did actually attempt to destroy the Earth and nearly succeeded in it.”
“True,” Wufei mused. “But we do need to worry about either getting caught on one of these forays, or getting betrayed. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you say about Lady Une, Trowa, all I know is that she wasn’t exactly the kindest person in the world and I did end up killing the man she loved…” He started to blush as his eyes fell on Heero and Duo. “Speaking of forays, who’s got the next one and when?”
“That would be me, in about two hours,” Heero spoke up from his spot on the floor. They were under something of a lockdown as long as the “peacekeeping” police force was there, since Une had given Trowa her word that she would hide the pilots as long as they stayed. But there were a few spots around the satellite that were out of patrol areas, with ways to them that crossed as few patrol routes as possible, and the former OZ colonel had made arrangements for supplies to be dropped off in one of these spots every couple of days. Accompanying the food and occasional movies was a note, telling them when and where the next lot would be left. It was not the easiest thing to actually carry out, but it was the best plan anyone had been able to come up with.
“You do know that those forays are quite risky, right? They’re getting suspicious,” Duo said, once more nearly asleep. Une did take special note of the fact that Duo was hyperactive and it was a difficult thing for anyone to be held in a confined space with nothing to do for long. Duo had given her hell as a prisoner until she had given permission for daily exercise and then refused it unless Wufei and Heero got the same privilege. So, once he had found a handheld video-game player in the package and there was usually a new game for it each week. “One of us gets seen on a scavenging trip and the whole cover is blown, Une gets arrested for harboring known criminals and they scour this satellite from end to end until they find, mock-try and space us.” Cynical as always, even half-asleep.
“I love the colonies and I know you guys do too, else we all wouldn’t have fought for them so hard… but damn them!” Quatre said tiredly. “They had to insist on the arrest of ‘those villainous young Gundam pilots’ and our conviction for our ‘heinous crimes of war’ before they’d agree to peace.”
“Calm down, Quatre. You still need to rest rather than rant,” Trowa gently shushed him. Quatre bit back a retort and settled back against the pillows even as the others showed their amusement over the blond’s remark.
“‘War crimes?’ Didn’t someone tell them absolutely nothing, bar nothing, is a crime when you’re fighting for your life?” The old saying was running through everybody’s mind but nobody spoke it, to avoid embarrassing Wufei.
“I guess not,” the Chinese pilot said after a moment.
TBC