Alternate Gundam Wing Universe:

Gundam Apocalypse

by Maria Rocket

Chapter Three

***

When Solo awoke, he was shivering. The flat, hard surface beneath his cheek and palms felt like a sheet of ice. For a moment he thought he was dead, especially when he opened his eyes to nothing but darkness. But his stomach was growling, and he decided that a dead person probably wouldn't be hungry. His muscles were stiff from whatever he had been drugged with, and he pulled himself up to his knees painfully. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized he was inside a small featureless room.

He knew it was no use to even bother with the door. He knew it must be locked. He was in a prison cell. With a groan, he staggered into a hunched over standing position. He immediately had to support himself by placing his hands on his knees. Whatever they had knocked him out with had been powerful stuff.

Whoever had knocked him out...

Solo grimaced at the thought of Heero capturing him. Yet, even before the door opened, he realized that his captor was not Heero. He squinted his icy blue eyes in pain at the sudden rectangle of light that assaulted him. Then a shadow fell mercifully in the way. Solo glanced up, with a rising sense of panic, at Prof. Falkner.

The man with the purple jacket and the cold black eyes regarded the braided boy before him who could barely stand with a dangerous amusement. He stepped forward and knocked Solo over with the slightest kick. He smirked as the boy crumpled to the floor.

"Did you really think you could betray me, steal off with my gundam, and get away with it?" His eyes narrowed. "I told you not to underestimate me. Now it looks like I'll have to dispose of you and find a new pilot. What a waste of time you were."

Solo glared up at him. "No one else can pilot that gundam...no one has the right! My father's soul is in that machine, you bastard! Apocalypse is mine! And I won't let you use it for whatever insane takeover you're planning..."

Without changing the strange smile on his face, Prof. Falkner kicked Solo hard in the stomach, forcing a gasp of anguish from him. "Insane...? Can you even hear yourself, boy? You're further gone than I am." He paced slowly around the boy who was quivering in pain. "Your father...he was a war hero, wasn't he?" He knelt down beside Solo. "And look at you...a raving mad, murderous nobody. You're a disgrace to his memory. By ridding the world of you, I'll be doing your father a favor."

When Solo began sobbing on the floor, Prof. Falkner stood with a satisfied sneer. "Finally wiped the insolence off your face, have I? Good. Think about that awhile. After you've let that sink in for a few hours, I'll return to deal with you." With a humorless chuckle, he stepped out of the room, leaving Solo in darkness once more.

A deep sadness overwhelmed Solo. He couldn't stand the thought of anyone else piloting Apocalypse, or what Prof. Falkner would do with it, but he was seriously beginning to believe that maybe it would be better if he simply died. His life was miserable, and he had never brought anything but misery to those around him. "Yes," he mumbled to himself. "Death begets nothing but misery. I deserve to die."

"Death also begets rebirth and second chances," a soft feminine voice replied from the darkness. "And no one deserves to die."

There was the sound of a loud metallic clang, and someone falling heavily to the ground. Solo could barely lift his head to see the shadow moving towards him. His clouded blue eyes slightly wobbled with tears at the sight. "If death wishes to embrace his son," he whispered, "then please let him, because there's nothing I want more right now than to be in his arms."

The shadow knelt beside him. "Boy... Prof. Falkner was right about one thing." A flashlight snapped to life, revealing a small, slender girl about Solo's age in a purple jumpsuit. "You're looney."

In the soft glow, Solo squinted up at an angelic face with big emerald eyes and amber hair that fell about her eyes and around her shoulders. Solo almost expected a pair of wings to sprout from her back. "You...who are you?"

The girl smiled. "I'm Zara. You could say I'm sorta a prisoner myself. Wanna escape with me?" She extended a hand to the dark-haired boy.

Solo hesitated and watched her suspiciously. Finally, he scowled as he took her hand. "I guess it's better to die on my feet than lying here."

It took Zara a lot of pulling to get Solo to his feet again. Once standing again, she steadied him. "Let's wait a few minutes 'til the drugs wear off. We have the time, and we won't get very far if you keep falling over." She nudged him slightly. "So, your name's Solo, huh?"

"Yeah...Solo Maxwell." Solo muttered. He looked over at her. "What are you helping me for anyway?"

Zara blinked at him innocently. For briefest of instants, Solo could have sworn she was checking him out. "Like I said, no one deserves to die," she stated softly. "And I think we can help each other."

This drew a curious look from Solo. "How do you know I won't kill you? I'm crazy, you know."

Zara smirked. "I think I'm willing to risk it. Besides, you're not really a killer. You're just lonely."

"You assume way too much," Solo scowled.

"No...I just have a knack for reading people," Zara smiled.

Solo just shook his head. "Whatever. So, what is it you want me for?"

"It's something I'll have to show you. You'd never believe me otherwise."

Once Solo had recovered enough to walk on his own, Zara led him out through the ventilation tube she'd broken into. It was too dark to see without the flashlight, but Solo followed behind Zara, as she seemed to know where she was going. "I'd been waiting for an opportunity to escape this place for some time," she explained in a whisper as they crawled along. "But I was always waiting for something. When I heard the gundam pilot had turned against the Project, I knew what I'd been waiting for."

"Hmm?"

A hint of light was up ahead. Zara tinkered with a metal tool that Solo couldn't see from his position. "I knew it was probably only a matter of time until they brought you here to be punished. We're just lucky Prof. Falkner didn't kill you as soon as he caught you." She turned something that clicked, and the metal grate fell away from the tube. She pulled her legs under her, and jumped down.

"I'm still surprised they found me at all," Solo jumped down after her into a darkly lit office. He glanced around at the old fashioned filing cabinets and the wooden desk with the single computer on it. "Falkner never struck me as being very competent beyond ordering people around."

"You'll need to be more careful. He's got a tracking device somewhere in your gundam." Zara sat at the computer and began typing away. "We'll need to remove it before we leave."

"What are you doing?" Solo leaned over the seat with one hand, looking into the blue glow of the screen.

"You'll see..."

Suddenly an image snapped onto the screen. It looked like Prof. Falkner, except that where his eyes should have been, there were only two glowing red lights. He seemed to be speaking in gibberish, until Zara typed something else onto the keyboard.

"Everything is proceeding," the onscreen image stopped speaking in gibberish. "The gundam is completed, and will soon initiate mass chaos upon both the human planet and colonies. With virtually no military to speak of, they will become desperate for assistance. The Project will step in to dispose of the gundam, which will be simple, especially considering the pilot is working for us. Then once the Project's forces are in place, we shall have no problem at all gaining complete control over all establishments. By the time our people arrive, I shall have this species all but exterminated. End update." The image froze.

Solo stared. "Umm...please don't tell me this is what it looks like."

"I told you it would be hard to believe," Zara sighed. "Prof. Falkner isn't human. He's been sent to prepare the Earth for alien colonization. I didn't believe it myself when I first hacked into his files and found this...but there it is."

Running his hands back through his hair, Solo paced around the small office. "God...you want me to save the world from aliens, is that what you want? Oh God...this is nuts..."

"You're our only hope. There is no more military on Earth or the colonies to defend themselves. You need to stay alive to fight and spread the truth. Otherwise we're all going to be destroyed..." Zara placed her hands in her lap and looked pleadingly up at him.

Solo glanced over at her from the corner of the room. He had a very doubtful look on his face. "Okay...I believe you. If we can get Apocalypse out of here, it'll screw up Falkner pretty bad, human or not. Where's it being held?"

With a smile, Zara stood and walked over to take his arm. "Come with me."

***

"Oh my little boy," Relena sobbed, hugging Duo tightly. She hadn't let go of the boy since Heero had brought him to the hospital. He was now sleeping soundly in his mother's arms.

Next to the bed, Heero sat in quiet contemplation. After Solo had been taken, he was sure it had to do with whoever had built the gundam. Clearly, Solo's performance, perhaps in returning Duo or something else entirely, had not been to their liking. Determined not to lose Solo, especially right after Duo had been returned, Heero had asked Quatre to do some checking around. Whatever mess Solo was in, Heero was going to find a way to help him out. He just had to figure out where this new activity was taking place...

"Relena?"

Heero lifted his head for a moment to see Milliardo Peacecraft standing in the doorway. He looked exceedingly worried as he approached Relena's side. Apparently she had notified him during Heero's absence, and he had rushed over. Heero nodded a silent greeting.

"Brother!" Relena greeted. "I'm so glad you've come. Dear Heero managed to bring Duo back...it's like a miracle."

"Thank goodness," Milliardo sighed, kissing his sister's forehead and stroking the sleeping boy's hair. Lucrezia wanted to be here, but Aleta still has a touch of the flu."

"Perfectly understandable," Relena smiled.

"I'm glad this was resolved with as little pain as possible." He looked up at the still thoughtful Heero. "Thank you, Heero."

Heero pulled out of his thoughts and looked up at Milliardo. "Oh... I really can't take any credit for Duo's return."

"But Heero..." Relena protested.

"It was Solo's choice." Heero turned from Relena and Milliard to Duo. "He wanted to give him back."

"Who's this Solo?" Milliardo asked with a small frown.

***

"Steady..." Zara whispered, helping a still somewhat wobbly Solo down from another tube. She had led them into what, to Solo, looked like a large landing dock. For nearly as far as he could see, there were mobile suits lined up in neat rows.

His eyes widened. At least he thought they were mobile suits. They were all coiled like red serpents, ready to strike. "What are those?"

"Mobile suits," Zara whispered with a grim expression. "Prof. Falkner's Scorpio class suits. They operate like the old mobile dolls, except far more advanced. He's planning on using these to enforce his control during the takeover."

"Maybe we should do something about these before we leave," Solo followed quickly after Zara as she made her way through the Scorpio hordes.

"At the moment, I think it would be wiser to get out of here as fast as we can. These things are tougher than you'd think. Remember, Falkner planned to be able to take down the gundam with these if he had to. We'll need a plan."

Finally, they reached the Apocalypse, which was crouching among the other suits. Solo almost smiled. Almost.

Zara led the way up to the cockpit. The first thing she did was to pry off one of the control panels with the same tool she'd used on the tube grating. Just as Solo went to protest, she pulled out a small cube-like object with a blinking red light on it. She tossed it to Solo, who caught it and stared at it.

"That's how they found you so quick. Get rid of it, and get in." She half jumped, half floated down from the Apocalypse and looked up at him for a moment.

"What about you?" Solo called out as she began running off.

"I'll be taking one of the Scorpios," Zara called back with a wave. "They can also be operated manually. They're all I've ever piloted, so don't worry. Just be ready to move when I tell you!"

"You're a pilot?" Solo asked in surprise, though she was then out of earshot. He quickly snapped out of his brief questioning stare, and tossed the tracker away from Apocalypse. As he turned to enter the gundam, he made a mental note to later ask Zara exactly what she'd been imprisoned for.

***

"Duo Maxwell's son? Are you sure?" After a long explanation of recent events, Milliard looked exceedingly pale. He had taken to pacing the room with a hand to his temples.

Heero nodded. "I'm sure. And I'm also sure that whoever captured him is responsible for building the new gundam. Quatre's looking into it at this very moment. Once we locate the builder, I'm going to rescue Solo."

"Heero, I know it's important to find out who's behind the gundam before more tragedy happens, but is Solo really worth the trouble?" Relena looked up at Heero and held their son tighter.

"Was I worth the trouble?"

Relena sighed.

Just then, Quatre stepped in clutching a printout sheet. He nodded a quick greeting to Milliardo, who did likewise. "Hello, Mr. Peacecraft, glad you could make it." He wasted no time in handing the printout over to Heero. "It took some digging...even with no one monitoring these things closely anymore, someone went to a lot of trouble to cover their tracks. Apparently about three years ago, someone shipped an incredible amount of Gundanium to somewhere on the moon's surface. Not only that, but titanium, platinum, and other various metals...many of which are used only in the construction of mobile suits."

"So, there could already be an army of mobile suits right over our heads?" Milliardo stopped pacing, looking as though he had a severe headache. "After all this time...who could possibly be responsible?"

Heero stood. "That's what I'm going to find out."

"I'm coming along," Millardo stated in a no nonsense manner.

"Alright." Heero turned towards the door. "Quatre..."

"Yeah, I'll stay and watch out for Relena and Duo," Quatre finished with a smile. Truth was, he was getting tired of staying behind all the time, but he at least felt relieved that Heero still trusted him with his family. Besides, Trowa had decided to come down to Earth after hearing what had happened, and Quatre figured it would be best if he was here when he arrived. "Just be careful," he warned Heero and Milliardo. "There's no telling what you may find up there."

***

Prof. Falkner was stepping into the hall when a low rumble vibrated throughout the Project's lunar base. Alarms went screaming through the air. Several soldiers began running through the hallways for their emergency positions. Falkner managed to catch one roughly by the arm.

"What's going on!?"

The soldier cowered. "I'm not sure...they're saying we've got a breach, and the gundam's gone!"

"What!?" Pushing the soldier away, Falkner rushed down to the base's main offices, where he was met by a frightened looking man in white lab coat.

"Prof. Falkner! The pilot, Maxwell, he's escaped, and he's taken the Apocalypse with him!"

In a rage, Falkner shoved past the man in the raincoat and began typing into the main security panel. "Then check the tracking system you fool, and send out the Scorpios to bring them back!"

"We can't! He's removed it!" The lab coat man held up the cube-shaped device.

"What...!?" Falkner whirled around and stared at the device in disbelief. "Damn him!" He slapped the device from the man's grasp, and it went skidding across the floor. "Is he still in range?"

Looking quite terrified now, the lab coat man shook his head in a negative. "He's either gone into cloak or around the surface of the moon by now. By the time we send out the Scorpios, he'll be long gone. We...we just weren't expecting anything like this!"

Falkner slammed his fist down on the panel, causing it to spark. "Send them out anyway! To both Earth and the colonies, send out manned Scorpios! We'll find and destroy him if we have to! I'll start the Project from scratch again if I need to, but we can't afford to let Maxwell live!"

"But...if the Scorpios are seen...!"

"It's a risk we'll have to take! We can't allow him to alert anyone to the location or objective of this operation! Send them out now!"

"But...but sir, I'm afraid we have another problem. Subject #34 is missing from the labs! We can't locate her anywhere! We think she may have..."

"Damn you!" Falkner backhanded the lab man sharply across the face. "How could you have let her escape!? If anyone finds out about her...!"

The lab man backed away. "She probably helped the pilot escape...if we can locate him, then we'll be sure to retrieve her. I'll have the Scorpios dispatched at once!"

As his underling fled to his task, Falkner stood fuming, in anger and in fear for everything he had worked for up to that point. It was bad enough the pilot was now a threat to security, and the gundam missing, but now #34 had escaped as well! He stalked off to his office.

***

Within minutes of fleeing the lunar base, Zara finally found her voice. "Solo...where are we going?"

Solo glanced up as her face appeared onscreen. "Going home. It's the one place I doubt the Project will ever find us."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm the only living soul that knows it exists," Solo nodded. "Just follow me."

"Well, if you say so..."

Apocalypse and Zara's Scorpio disappeared into dark space, headed in the direction of the L2 colonies.

***

It was night when Solo and Zara slipped into the colony unnoticed. Swiftly, Solo led them to the edge of a forested area. No one lived anywhere near there, at least not anymore. After he sent a remote signal, part of the forest floor lifted away to reveal a secret passage.

"Wow...this your place?" Zara hovered the Scorpio up beside him.

"Yeah...it's a secret place my parents used to keep a long time ago. We should be able to hide here for awhile. You tell anyone about this place though, and I'll have to kill you." Solo warned sharply.

"Hey, who am I gonna tell? I'm in hiding now too, you know."

Inside, the gundam and the Scorpio came to rest in a dark, cold, gigantic cave. It was mostly nothing but space, but in one corner were two old beds, and a collection of personal items that Zara couldn't really make out in the dark. The only lights Solo had bothered to switch on were a row of dim lights hanging high overhead.

"Just don't touch anything, okay?" Solo mumbled, making his way over to one of the beds, which he collapsed onto.

Zara smiled over at him, and noticed that there was more equipment and objects further down in the cave. But what had her attention now was a very large thing at the very end. Deciding to let Solo rest, she took a walk down to see what it was.

When she finally reached it, she saw that it was big purple and black mobile suit. It had a decidedly feminine look to it. The suit was layered with cobwebs and dust, but she could tell from glancing along it, that it was probably in perfect working condition. "Oh wow..."

"That, is the Gundam Persephone."

Startled, Zara turned to see Solo standing there behind her. She hadn't even heard him following her. "Really? I've never heard of it." Solo was standing with his hands tucked into his pockets, staring up at gundam Persephone. "She means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

Solo's eyes flickered over towards Zara with a mixture of irritation and surprise. "She belonged to my mother." He turned away and bowed his head slightly, hiding his face in shadow. "She was the one who made sure no one ever heard of Persephone. When I was very young, she mananged to find out about its construction, perhaps through her connections to my father, who was a gundam pilot himself. She became Persephone's test pilot, but when she became suspicious of it's purpose, she stole it and hid it away here. They never found us or the gundam." He looked up at Zara. "Guess you could say gundam snatching is a family tradition."

"Who built it?" Zara touched the cool metal surface, leaving the trail of her fingers behind in the dust.

Solo shrugged. "Who knows? My mother never told me much more about it. For all I know, it could've been ol' Falkner back then too."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Zara muttered. "It's beautiful though. Why did you get yourself involved with Falkner when you already had this?"

"I thought about it at first," Solo sighed. "But it just wasn't me." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I know it sounds silly."

Zara shook her head. "No, I understand. A gundam can be a very personal sort of thing."

Solo looked back up at her with a strange expression. "Yeah."

"Your mother must have been quite a woman to pilot something like this." Zara smiled and stood back to get a better view. "What's she doing now?"

"She's been dead for a long time," Solo pulled his green jacket off, leaving only the black shirt beneath. He tossed the jacket off to the side and turned to walk away. "I never actually saw her pilot anything myself. And I've only seen my father in old news archives."

Zara stood and watched him walk off. "Oh...I'm sorry." Her voice echoed as she raised her voice to be heard. "I guess that's why you're so lonely."

Glaring, Solo stopped and turned slightly to face her. "I don't need your sympathy. Could you please be quiet for awhile? Whatever we're going to do, it can wait until I get some sleep."

"Sure."

Solo started walking off again, then suddenly paused and turned his head to glance back at her again. "Anyway," he said in a softer tone of voice. "You have family?"

Zara's eyes which were usually wide and honest, suddenly became clouded and faraway. She looked away towards Persephone. "You'd better go get some sleep, Solo. We've got a difficult road ahead of us."

"Hmm." With a frown and a shrug, Solo tossed his braid and left for his bed. Zara just sat on the floor by the Persephone and watched him go. When he fell asleep, she was still watching him.

***

Within the dark recesses of his office, Falkner pulled a file out of one of his old filing cabinets. It was file #34, labeled: Zara Quatrina Winner. He ripped it in two. One of objectives in the Project had been to take complete control of all important political and financial institutions. This would eventually be achieved not only through forceful measures and good old fashioned corruption, the latter which had already served him well, but through some less conventional methods. Falkner had predicted that some would not be able to be corrupted or forced into serving the interests of the Project. One in particular, was the head of the powerful and wealthy Winner family.

The plan had been simple enough. They would create a genetic heir to Quatre Raberba Winner's fortune, then when the time was right, dispose of him and all remaining relatives. Once they had proven Zara to be the genetic daughter of Quatre Winner, she would have become the Project's puppet, and given them access to the Winner family's assets. However, she was no ordinary girl.

Falkner was now seriously beginning to regret having given the lab men under the Project any of the advanced techniques of his race to create the Winner girl. He should have left well enough alone. They had let their scientific curiousity get the better of them, and had decided to build her DNA not only from the Winner heir, but from the DNA of one of the other gundam pilots. One that had also given a DNA sample during a physical examination on the Peacemillian, which is where their agents had smuggled the genetic material from sixteen years ago when the Project had began in secret. As a result, Zara was the genetic daughter not only of Quatre Raberba Winner, but of the gundam pilot known as Trowa Barton as well.

"Twisted fools," Falkner muttered. "Traditional methods weren't good enough for them...had to make it their own secret experiment." Now, if anyone were to examine her and somehow discover the truth, it would lead right back to his lab men. They were the only ones with technology sophisticated enough, even as far as common human science went, to accomplish such a thing. And what led to them, could possibly lead back to himself and the Project. He grimaced.

Raised from an infant by the Project, Zara had been trained with many skills, including mobile suit piloting. Falkner had initially instructed that her abilities remain only in the political and corporate area that she would eventually need to run the Winner corporation for them, but the scientists had wanted their experiment to continue further. As the daughter of two gundam pilots, they had began training her, to see if she had inherited any exceptional piloting skills. When it quickly became clear that she did indeed excel in piloting, they had increased her training, which came to include computer hacking and hand-to-hand combat. The unnecessary training began to greatly concern Falkner.

He had barely allowed the training to continue, feeling that his men were giving her far too much freedom of thought in conjunction with her training. However, when Solo had betrayed him, he soon decided to select Zara as Apocalypse's new pilot.

But now...

"Damn them both," he rasped. "I'll kill them before I let them ruin all my work after these many years!" His eyes glowed crimson in the dark.

--------------------

(Author's Notes: Okay, thanks to my side trip into the Black Woods of the Cinq Kingdom, I didn't finish this nearly as soon as I thought I would. ^^; But at least it's earlier than last time. Gundam Persephone, by the way, was something I originally created for a Duo and Hilde romance fic (which I am *still* working on ^^; ), but I couldn't help but to include it in this series. The big differences being that in the original timeline, Duo was alive, and it wasn't the result of alien colonists. ^^;; Anyhoo, I hope to finish that one of these days. And I hope Zara Winner's origins haven't freaked ya out too badly, hehehe. ^^; )