Chapter Nine

By Raven

Email: SandDruid@aol.com

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam, so please don’t sue me. Here is Part 9 , OH! And if anyone wants to use my characters, please!!ask me, I don’t mind if you ask.

In Africa:

Valise and Relena walked into the mess hall where the groups were all sitting at different tables. The Gundam boys were at one end of the room while the rest of the Gundam girls were at the other end of the room. The girls and Derrick from the school were right in the middle. Nobody was talking. Valise looked at Relena who shrugged her shoulders. Heero looked at Relena a moment then turned to staring at nothing. Valise shook her head. "It’s like a morgue in here."

Derrick noticed Relena immediately. "Sage? I thought you were gone."

Relena put a hand to her head and groaned. "It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later, Okay?"

Derrick nodded his head. Valise turned to the Gundam girls. "Time to train, let’s get going."

The girls were reluctant to get up. Mary at one table muttered under her breath. "I bet that I can beat any of them."

Misty heard this and halted the rest of the Gundam girls from walking out of the room, she turned to Mary. "You just don’t give up, I don’t think you understand, you’ve already started digging your grave, I wouldn’t suggest you dig any deeper."

Mary looked away. Wufei got an idea. "How about a friendly challenge, if you don’t think that, that girl could be a match, how about us?"

None of the boys disagreed with Wufei. Misty looked at them then turned to Relena to see if she would accept. Relena thought for a moment, and looked at Heero as she gave her answer. "Challenge accepted."

Relena walked out of the room followed by Valise and the rest of the girls. Morgan ran up to Relena. "What do you think you're doing? They are seasoned fighters, we haven’t been fighting or training with our Gundams for even a year."

Relena stopped. "I agree with the fighting part, that in hand to hand combat we would most assuredly be defeated."

Morgan looked exasperated. "Then why?"

"Morgan, there is one thing that all of us have the same amount of experience, our minds. There are other ways of defeating your enemy, use strategic plans, trick them. This is the way to prove to them and to ourselves that we can go against the best."

Hilde smiled. "She’s right, Duo always thought that I was not his equal, but I can prove that I am."

Relena stayed right where she was as the girls went to change and head to the Gundam storage. Valise studied Relena for a moment. "What is the real reason why you're fighting them?"

Relena hung her head sadly. "It’s the only way I prove to Heero that I can fight, and why I am here. If I beat him he will accept why I am here, but if I don’t……I don’t know what will happen."

Valise walked past her and put a hand on Relena’s shoulder. "I just hope you win, for your sake."

The other girls and Derrick walked past Relena. Mary’s and Relena’s eyes locked for a moment, the girls all had their chins up as they walked past. Derrick smiled warmly at her, Relena couldn’t help but smile back. She looked at the retreating group. "I can’t believe I used to be one of those girls."

She waited until the Gundam boys came out of the mess hall. Quatre, Trowa, and Duo all gave her a little smile, Wufei didn’t give any notice that he knew she was there. Heero came out last and stood in front of her. Relena spoke first. "When we fight, no one else gets involved, agreed?"

Heero nodded his head and walked away.

At the Gundam storage:

The girls from the school were hanging around the boys getting their Gundams set up. The Gundam girls walked in, Morgan looked at Sandy talking to Quatre and looked away. Misty shook her head and made a disgusting noise at Sherry, who was making seductive glances at Trowa. Hilde smiled when she saw Duo head off Erica’s advances. Sam and Mary were hanging around Heero’s Gundam, Relena’s jaw tightened when she saw Mary go up to Heero.

"Sage!"

Relena turned to see Derrik come up to her. "Hello Derrik, what are you doing here?"

He smiled at her. "I came to watch the fight, and to wish you good luck."

Relena gave him a huge smile. She knew that Derrik had feelings for her, but Relena knew that with Heero there was no competition. "Thank you Derrick."

He smiled and went over to the other girls. Misty came up to Relena. "You should go after him, he’s good looking, and nice."

Relena laughed at Misty’s interest. "He’s nice but I feel nothing, why don’t you Misty?"

Misty glanced at Trowa then at Derrik. "Derrick’s not my type."

"Misty you are unique."

Misty sighed like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. "I know, it’s so hard to keep up the mysterious and ever guessing image."

Relena laughed at this and so did Misty. Heero heard Relena’s laugh and looked at her. Mary saw him looking at Relena, and tried to change his attention to her. "Heero, I hope you win, you look like you can beat anyone, you're..so strong."

Heero ignored her and got into his Gundam, all the boys were ready so they went to the surface first. Relena looked at Morgan, Misty, and Hilde. "Good luck you guys, and remember use your heads not your Gundams."

The girls smiled, Morgan started to laugh and she saluted Relena. Relena shook her head. "Go on, get to your Gundams."

On the African plains:

The boys were waiting for the other Gundams to come up. They got to the surface and Morgan contacted the other Gundam girls through the communicator. "Hey, do you guys feel that the odds are against us, I mean five to four?"

Relena talked back to Morgan. "It doesn’t matter, just try your best. I need to tell you guys something, I’m going to be fighting with Heero’s Gundam Zero, under any circumstances do not help me, just stay away from us."

Hilde understood why she had to fight Heero. "I understand, Relena."

Misty and Morgan didn’t quite understand but they honored her wishes. "We won’t interfere."

The boys took out their weapons, and the girls did the same. No one moved. Relena stared at 01. "Might as well." She connected with Polartic. "Don’t let me down friend." Relena turned on Polartic’s thrusters and headed straight for 01. The other Gundam’s saw this as the ice breaker. They immediately started to fight with the girls.

In the storage:

Valise and the group were watching the fight from a monitor. Valise whispered, "Come on girls, show them how good you are."

Meltam was fighting to keep SandRocks knives away from puncturing it’s armor. Morgan was straining to hold the arms away from her Gundam.

"Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Okay, okay think Morgan."

She immediately thought of thrusters, she turned them on and it gave her the extra boost to reverse the situation on SandRock. Morgan smiled. "Now we’re in business."

Quatre was fighting off Meltam now. "She’s strong, a worthy adversary."

Misty was holding off the Shen Long with her machine guns, Canic took out his saber sword and went to Shen Long, before she got there Heavy Arms slid in front of her and started firing. "Shit!" Misty turned on her thrusters and flew up high. Trowa was thinking how fast she was.

"Nice move."

Meanwhile Zero and Polartic were fighting each other like their lives depended on it. They were equally matched, Heero got his saber out and while Relena was distracted cut Polartic. Polartic fell back and Relena gave a cry when some metal cut her arm and the side of her face from inside the cockpit.

"Ahh!"

Heero flew his Gundam was about to put his sword right through Polartic, but Relena took out her two sword sabers and knocked his sword away. She got up and Polartic landed a punch on Zero. Zero staggered back, inside Heero got very determined. "You are better than I thought Relena."

In another fight Hilde was giving Duo a good match. Her Gundam plowed into the Deathsycth. She took out sword and slashed toward Duo. She almost got him. Duo wasn’t angry in fact he was impressed. "Well Hilde you sure are proving yourself."

At the Storage:

"Hello Valise!" Valise turned to the voice and saw the Professors. She looked at Professor J.

"You're just in time."

"In time for what?"

"To see the fight of all fights."

She turned back to the monitor as the professor’s came up to see their Gundam’s fighting the ones that were on the base.

On the African plains, later:

The Gundams were all slowing down, the pilots were exhausted. SandRock had gotten the best of Meltam and Morgan was too tired to fight anymore. With one final hit from SandRock, Meltam fell back and Morgan didn’t even try to get up. On the other hand Misty was to determined to give up, Shen Long and Heavy Arms had surrounded her.

"Okay you guys want to play hard, we’ll play hard."

She connected her mind into Canic. "Canic melting system activate."

Trowa and Wufei were surprised when their Gundams started to go to Canic on their own. Canic was pulling their Gundams toward it with the magnetizing system. Wufei got angry.

"What kind of trickery is this?!" In Canic it started to reach 180 degrees and was getting hotter, but Misty was lying back in the chair with her hands behind her head, and smiled.

"As soon as you guys give up, I’ll stop."

Inside the Shen Long and Heavy Arms, Trowa and Wufei were getting very hot. Trowa contacted Wufei on the communicator. "Wufei, we have to give up, or our Gundam will melt, it’s getting to hot."

Wufei talked to Trowa. "No, I won’t give up."

"It’s useless, you will kill yourself, and me."

Wufei grudgingly agreed, the put down their weapons and surrendered to Misty. Canic turned off the system and stepped back, Misty was very happy. "I’m good, I’m good, I can’t believe I beat you guys."

Meanwhile the Deathsycth had gotten the best of Hilde’s Gundam. She surrendered. "Damn it! I almost had him."

The Gundams were heading back to base, but Heero and Relena were still fighting. Polartic had turned on the thrusters and moved away from Zero’s sword.

"Polartic, lock on tracking system to Zero, fire beam cannon."

Zero tries to move out of the way but the shot tracked him. Heero took out his beam cannon and waited till the shot was close enough then shot his beam cannon. Both shots hit each other and exploded. Through the smoke of the blast Zero charged Polartic and crushed him against a boulder. Relena counter attacked with the lasers on her helmet, it caught Zero and did extensive damage at such a close range. Both of the Gundams were damaged too much to continue fighting. Heero opened the hatch to Zero and came out, Relena did the same. He nodded to her, and Relena smiled. It would end up that both of them had won.

In the storage:

Valise was extremely happy with the outcome, and the professors were very impressed. The Gundams came onto the platform and came down to the storage. The pilots locked their Gundams into the casing, Morgan and Hilde were pretty disappointed, while Misty couldn’t stop smiling. Zero and Polartic were the last to come down. Duo came to Hilde.

"Hilde?"

Hilde looked up at Duo, and waited for him to tell her that he was right and that shouldn’t fight. "Yes Duo?"

Duo looked at her. "I was wrong, I shouldn’t have told you to stay home, if you wanted to come then you should have been able to help. I just wanted you to be safe, but I realize that you have just as much right to be here as I do."

Hilde couldn’t believe what she was hearing. When he was done, she gave a laugh and hugged him fiercely, he returned the hug. Morgan was taking off her gloves as Quatre walked over, she saw him and thought to herself, "Great, he’s probably come to gloat."

Quatre stopped in front of her, and smiled. Morgan waited for him to say something and already had a stinging reply ready.

"You did a good job, I was impressed. You’re a worthy match."

"Yeah well you know what…wait a minute did you say I was a worthy match?"

Quatre nodded. Morgan was caught off guard, no one had every been so nice to her before, except for the other Gundam girls. "Th..Thank you."

Quatre put his hand out to her. "I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name? I’m Quatre."

Morgan smiled and shook his hand. "I know your name, I’m Morgan."

Misty was grinning like a fool, both Wufei and Trowa came up to her. Trowa looked at Wufei, who looked like he swallowed something distasteful. He came forward to Misty, who was watching both of the guys. Wufei took a deep breath, and looked her in the eye. "You are a good fighter."

Misty lifted her eyebrows at the statement. "That must have been hard to say for you."

Wufei looked at Trowa. "You have no idea."

Wufei left Misty and Trowa in each others company. Misty turned to Trowa after watching Wufei walk off.

"I would say that you gave me a run for my money, I thought more than once that I was done for."

Trowa leaned against the main consul. "You did beat us though."

Misty gave a huge smile, and looked at Canic. "Yeah, I did didn’t I?" She laughed and Trowa gave the slightest hint of a smile.

Relena had come down off of Polartic and was holding her arm, which was bleeding badly, she was sure it was dislocated and her head wound was bleeding to but not as bad. She looked at Polartic. "Thank you for doing your best." She turned to look at Heero who had only a few scrapes on him. "Lucky dog."

She came to the ground, everyone was waiting for her including Heero and the professors. Valise came to her. "Good job, I’m proud of what you accomplished."

Relena smiled and looked at Heero, she smiled at him. "I had a tough competition."

Heero stayed where he was but his face softened. Damon came running in and slammed into Relena. "Sage are you hurt?"

Relena shook the pain of him slamming into her arm and bit back a cry from pain. "Of course not, they’re just scratches."

Everyone knew they weren’t, Misty took Damon. "Come on little man, let’s go get something to drink."

He looked at Sage who gave him a nod to go with Misty. As soon as they walked out, Relena hissed at the pain of her arm. Valise looked at it. "It’s dislocated, and your cut will need stitches."

Relena nodded which gave off a wave of dizziness. "I figured as much."

Everyone had gone off to either get some food or get some rest. Heero remained with Relena, Valise and the professors. Professor J asked Valise a question.

"Would you mind if we took a look at your Gundams Valise? They are most intriguing."

Valise gave him a heated gaze. "Fine, but I better not see you fiddling with them."

"I wouldn’t dream of it."

Valise told Relena to get to the lab, so she can fix her up. Heero turned to Relena. "I’m coming with you."

Relena nodded and gave a little smile.

In the Lab:

Valise had stitched up Relena’s cut and had set her shoulder in the right place. Heero stayed to the side of the table during the whole time. Valise left them. Heero spoke first to Relena. "Why did you run away?"

Relena looked at him. "I couldn’t deal with the responsibility, it caught up with me and I had to run, it was like I needed to get away."

Heero moved a little closer. "What happened?"

Relena could feel the tears in her eyes. "Horrible things, I was in a CWD prison for about four years, until I escaped."

Heero put his head down. "Why didn’t you reach me when you escaped?"

Relena stood up, she got angry. "Look at me! I’m different, I’m Sage Mason now. Relena Peacecraft died along time ago."

Heero came face to face with her. "I don’t buy that."

"Nothing can change how you think or feel Heero, and the same for me. I’ve been through many painful tortures, my body is scarred from it. I am not the same." Relena walked past him and out the door. Heero stood for a little while and thought about what she said.

The Next Day:

The whole group were in the living hall, including the rich girls and Derrik. They were talking and lying around. The rich girls were sitting together and giving Misty, Morgan, and Hilde evil glances, since they were talking with the Gundam boys. Relena was sitting by herself, and she knew that Heero was to. She thought about the New Kingdom meeting tomorrow where a undercover CWD might kill her brother. Relena looked around to see her friends, she thought to herself, "They shouldn’t have to go , it’s my brother, they have already done so much."

Relena got up and walked out of the Living hall to go find Valise. She found her in the Gundam storage with the professors fixing the Gundams. Relena called to her, Valise came down. "What is it Sage?"

"I’m going to the New Kingdom meeting to kill the CWD, and I’m going alone, or I don’t fight with Polartic anymore."

Valise gave a sigh. "I can’t stop you, but take Misty or Morgan, please."

"No, this is something I have to do, by myself."

Valise searched her face. "I trust you know what you're doing."

Relena nodded. "I’ll take a plane, and leave as soon as I’m ready. It’ll take a while to get there."

Valise smiled. "Take care."

"Don’t worry I’ll be back."

Relena went to her room, she took out some temporary hair dye and looked in the mirror.

"Let’s get started."

At about 8:00p.m:

Relena had now black hair, and put a dress in a bag. She left her room and went to the mess hall. She stopped a little ways away so no one could see her. She saw Damon with Hilde and Duo laughing when Duo made a face. She spotted Heero reading a book, she closed her eyes for a moment, then left. She went to a small plane Valise kept in the hanger, she flew off leaving the base behind.

END OF PART 9