This is actually inspired from a
dream I had, and decided to write up a fic around it, changing the
characters and using the Gundam universe (specifically Gundam Wing) for
it's setting (great how dreams are good for fic, ne?). However, this
particular part is only one section of the entire story, and occurs
somewhere in the middle of the timeline.
This fic also takes the assumption that all of the original Gundams
(Wing, Shenlong, Heavy Arms, Sandrock and Death Scythe) were never
destroyed (as the t.v. series reflects that they were, and then later
rebuilt, some under different names).
THE STORY: It's about a girl who was sent back into the past (with a
Gundam of her own) to stop the Gundam Boys from making a mistake, which
will cause their deaths (and countless deaths in the future). In this
part, the girl is undergoing a "memory scan", to prove to that she is
telling the truth, and giving a warning of what is to come...
I hope you enjoy!
- Jennifer Mondazzi (Rena/Presea on CML)
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"The future is not yet set.
The only Fate is what we make."
GUNDAM WING: Fate's Future (copyright November 16, 1996)
The memories came flooding into Rika's mind, as the drug relaxed her,
breaking down her mental barriers, streaming through her system.
Slowly, images began forming on the computer's large screen behind her.
The five Gundam Boys watched carefully.
At first, there was darkness, seemingly unending, then swirls of light
combined together to form shapeless, blobs of color. They massed
quickly into the center of the picture, seeming to dance chaotically.
Images formed from their conglomeration, dizzying in effect. They were
hazy, but soon came into focus.
There was a gentle gasp from someone within the room, but Rika did not
hear it. She was totally immersed in the memories now...
A woman, dressed all in white, circled in front of a long mirror,
looking at herself, appraising. True, her dress wasn't very fancy, nor
terribly expensive, but it didn't need to be -- the one who wore it
shone brighter than all the jewels in the world could have. Her smile
told her happiness, her eyes danced with excitement. As she looked at
herself, she giggled like a young child, the laughter bursting within
her.
It was Rika's wedding day.
Suddenly, the image shifted, as memories often do - flittering from
image to image.
Rika was outside, and in front of her was a man dressed in a priest's
shift. In his hands he held a worn Bible, it's yellowed pages telling
of much use. Behind him, the sun was setting over a lake, it's
pink-orange hue filling the horizon with bright, lively color. The
priest gestured to Rika's right, and when she turned her head, the hazy
image of the groom appeared before her. His facial features were
slowly coming into focus, through her tear-filled eyes...
Everyone within the room gasped in surprise...
It was a much older Hiroe.
Smiling gently down at his bride, he held her hands in his tenderly,
and stepped closer to her. As he leaned towards her to kiss her, the
screen went black. There was a few short seconds of nothingness before
a new image jumped onto the screen...
Rika was looking through the monitor of a mobile suit at the
destruction around her. Occassionally a light would flash, or an
internal alarm would blare it's trumpet of warming, alerting her to
trouble. Each time, she responded quickly, aiming and targeting her
enemy and destroying them.
From the smaller monitor on her right, a person's face appeared. It
was Hiroe. He was telling her to back-off, to retreat. She nodded
once, and Hiroe's face disappeared from the screen. Moving her mobile
suit out of harm's way, she began initiating flight-mode, when the
screeching alarm suddenly went off. Her left monitor informed her by
schematic detail that a laser cannon blast was coming right at her.
>From the amount of power behind it, the beam would shread her mech to
pieces.
Her reaction came a bit too late. She braced herself for the hit.
It never came. Instead, a giant metal body threw itself in front of
her mobile suit, taking the blast head on. She slammed her mech into
motion, throwing it's body down and to the left, hoping to duck any
major shrapnel. She felt her body thrown forward and to the side, as
the restraining belt grabbed her roughly, squeezing the breath from her
lungs. When the mech hit the ground, it was bone-jarring.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that her main screen was cracked,
her on-board A.I. badly damaged. Her own body registered massive pain,
and stars began exploding behind her eyes, causing her head to ache,
her vision to blur. Her last coherent memory was of Hiroe's Gundam
taking the hit for her, then everything went black...
The loud beeping of a heart-monitor machine was loud in the quiet
room. The screen was black again, but once more, hazy images
formed...
Rika opened her eyes. She was in a make-shift hospital bed, and
leaning over her was Duo, his face touched with relief. Vaguely she
heard him speaking to someone about her condition. Once more, her eyes
shut, and darkness took her towards an escape...
The screen burst with light, nearly blinding those watching the
bizarre twisted memories come to life before them...
Rika ran down a long, deserted corridor. Her breath was loud in the
quiet hallway, as she frantically raced towards the door at the end of
the cooridor. Shoving it forward, she halted inside the small room and
looked around. The walls washed in white, and everyone could see her
warm breath frozen in the cold air.
On the opposite side of the room, was a gurney. On the gurney was a
covered body. Slowly, Rika made her way to it, her hands visibly
shaking...
From the Emmersion chair, Rika let out a whimper, as if she knew what
was coming. The computer, monitoring her body systems, increased the
amount of Thoryil to her blood stream, hoping to calm the sudden
fluttering heart and anxiety it was sensing.
"I thought you couldn't react while under that drug," Duo said,
staring at Rika's struggling form.
"You're not supposed to," Trowa answered him, staring at her
intently.
"Fifteen-hundred cc's is a lot," Quatre explained, "She should be in
a deep, relaxed state."
"Well, it doesn't seem to be workin'," Duo stated, crossing his arms
in front of him. Wu Fai said nothing. He merely crossed his arms in
front of him, and leaned back against the wall.
"Something's happening," Hiroe said, his voice unusually soft, his
eyes engrossed with the screen. Everyone turned back to the monitor,
to watch what would happen next...
Rika's hand reached out to grasp the sheet, but shook so badly that
she fumbled for it. Under the sheet, the vague outline of a person
could be seen, but no breath stirred from it's body.
Lying on the gurney, was Hiroe, his face more peaceful than any had
ever seen.
The mark of death lie clearly upon his features, and Rika, having seen
this, fell into a kind of shock. A small whimper escaped her lips, and
a tear splashed upon Hiroe's smooth cheeks, as Rika leaned over him.
"Nooooooooo!" she moaned, before all went black once more...
On the chair, Rika moaned aloud, and a single tear streaked down her
smooth, white cheek. Her eyelids twitched, as her psyche tried to wake
her from the memories to protect her. The computer adjusted the Toryil
dosage once more, and Rika's relaxed state returned. No one said a
word, and the room was deathly quiet. Hiroe's gaze was guarded, but he
stared down at Rika intently.
Again, the screen became lighter...
This time, Rika stood in the frame of a broken doorway, looking out
over a destroyed and desolate village on the edge of a mountain side.
The earth around her was scorched with laser blasts, and occassionally
a voice spoke from somewhere far away, but Rika seemed detached,
staring out at the horizon. The sound of gunfighting and war continued
off where she was staring, and occassionally an explosion or laser
blast could be seen over the branches and tall mountains in the
distance.
Someone touched her shoulder, jarring her from her thoughts. It was
an older, tougher looking Trowa. He was filthy, his face and jumpsuit
streaked with black soot and mud.
"Quatre and Duo are chasing down what's left of the Alliance's
Eastern Army to the southeast. Anytime now we should hear from them."
Trowa seemed to wait for a response. When he didn't get one right
away, he continued, his voice soft.
"Shenlong is....irrepairable. We can use what's left of it's parts,
however, for the other Gundams." Again, he paused, waiting. Rika was
silent. He blinked once, then continued.
"The doctors say Wu-Fei is in a coma. They're not sure when he'll
come out of it, if at all." Finally, Rika spoke.
"Where is he?"
"They've moved him to the make-shift on the other side of the
village." He pointed down towards the left, to the end of the village
where people moved back and forth between the new Ops and the Hospital.
Rika took off at a sprint.
As she neared the area known as the "make-shift," the sounds of the
dying grew louder. People saluted her, but she seemed to pay them
little attention. As she slowed, two doctors approached her,
half-saluting, their bodies weary and tired looking.
"I want to see Lieutenent Wu-Fei," she said crisply.
"He's in the quiet room, but..." the doctor said nothing more, merely
pointed. Rika nodded, and headed towards the inside of one of the
small houses. In the back corner, a door lead into a small room. A
field nurse saluted, and Rika saluted her back.
"Lieutenent Wu-Fei?"
"In there," the nurse said, nodding her head towards the small room.
Rika nodded, and moved past her, into the small room.
There, on a bed stained with wet blood, lay Wu-Fei. Attached to his
mouth was a machine which forced his lungs to breathe air. His chest
rattled each time the machine allowed him to exhale. Another machine
was left to monitor his heart. The "beep" it made was loud in the
still room.
Half of Wu-Fei's face was bandaged. Burned skin showed through the
sections where the bandages could not cover completely. It was obvious
that the doctors had repaired what they could, and left to attend those
who were able to be saved. Rika sat down in a chair next to the bed.
She reached out and touched his bandaged right hand, held the remaining
two fingers gently, and stroked them back and forth. Tears blurred her
vision, as she leaned her forehead down to touch Wu-Fei's limp, wounded
hand against her cheek.
"Oh, Wu-Fei, I'm so sorry..."
Everything went black on the screen again, as Rika whimpered from her
chair, beginning to wake up from the mind probe, her sorrow etched
across her face. The computer once more pumped more drugs into her
system, stabilized her rapidly active brain wave patterns, and put her
back into a state of transcendedness. She whimpered once more, then was
silent again.
The darkness unveilled to show more of her memories...
Rika stood over the edge of the mountain, and looked down upon the
rocks two hundred feet below her. The sound of footsteps approaching
caught her ear, and she turned her head slightly to see who the
stranger was.
It was Trowa.
She stood and moved away from the ledge. For several moment neither
spoke.
"There was nothing you could do," Trowa whispered gently to her.
"Oh, really?" the bitterness was clealy evident in Rika's voice. She
smirked cruelly, turning her back on him. Trowa didn't move, but his
face became hard.
"You couldn't have gone yourself, you know that. Your Gundam was
damaged in the last fight." Rika said nothing for a long while, and
the two remained standing in silence. Finally, she spoke, her voice
barely a whisper.
"And the trap? I suppose you're going to say that I..."
"...couldn't have forseen that either." Trowa stepped closer to her.
"Wu-Fei knew the risks when he volunteered." Her shoulders stiffened
in response, and her eyes grew harder.
"I'm still responsible. Just like.....and now Wu-Fei's gone, too."
Rika stopped herself, her eyes flooding with tears...
The screen became blurry as Rika wept.
Everyone in the room turned to stare at Wu-Fei. His usually arrogant
demeanor was cold, stunned into shock. It seemed something within him
- that creature that had always proclaimed him invincible -- suddenly
he realized how very vunerable he really was. He felt lost, distant
and withdrawn.
None more than Quatre understood those feelings, and he reached out a
hand and placed it on Wu-Fei's shoulder in silent support.
"I...Shenlong...." was all Wu-Fei could bring himself to say. His
hands clenched by his side and he closed his eyes in suddenly
frustration at his own lack of power. Quatre did his best to help his
friend, hoping to be of some light to the sudden bleakness within
Wu-Fei's soul.
"Remember that Rika was sent here to warn us of what might be. By
learning all of this now, we're changing the future, so what she knows
as memories are no longer possible in the scheme of time."
Wu-Fei said nothing, but merely nodded. Blinking back his
frustration, he lifted his chin once more, attempting a brave facade
for everyone, all the while, looking on them with haunted eyes.
"She's talking again," Trowa said, staring intently at the screen...
Rika turned her face towards the full moon, apparently trying to
compose herself.
"So, we won one, finally," she said, her voice flat, dull, without
feeling. Out of the corner of her eye, Trowa's hand came up to comfort
her. She stepped away from him.
"Don't...please," she whispered, her voice tortured. Trowa said
nothing, but his arm fell back to his side. After several seconds of
silence, she spoke. Her voice was hard once more.
"From now on, I'm accompanying every mission. We can't afford to
lose anymore pilots when we're finally on the winning side." Trowa's
reaction was harsh.
"Is that all any of us is to you anymore -- just soldiers to be used
in this war?!"
Everyone in the room seemed surprised, and shocked. Even Trowa seemed
stunned at the vehemency in his future-self's voice. Trowa had never
shown his emotions so openly before. It was as if they were all
looking at a completely different person...
When Rika spoke, her voice was hard, steel-edged.
"We're all soldiers in this war. There's no time for anything else
if we want to live." For a long time, Trowa stared at Rika. Neither
said a word, and the sounds of the camp seemed far away. Finally,
Trowa spoke, his tone biting.
"You stopped living the day Hiroe died. So, what are you still
fighting for?"
Rika's hand came up to slap him, but Trowa grabbed her wrist, and
pulled her to him. For long moments, they stared into each others'
eyes, a silent battle of wills. Slowly, Trowa's other hand came up to
touch her face, but Rika pushed away. Insistent, Trowa grabbed both of
her arms, and pulled her towards him. They stared long into each
other's gaze.
"I've been with you for over two years, and I've watched you slowly
die inside. I've seen the pain you mask behind yout hardness. It's
poisoning you. You've forgotten what you're really out here fighting
for. It's turned into some sort of revenge for you."
"How dare you!" she began, but Trowa cut her off.
"I dare because I've had to stand beside you, not able to do a dammed
thing for too long. It's time you started living again, Rika." He
kissed her then, harshly at first, then gentler as Rika's fighting
ceased...
The screen went black again. Rika's heart rate had increased, her
brain patterns had jumped, and the computer desperately tried to
compensate by pumping more drugs into her. It beeped a warning and a
prompt flashed across the screen:
<Patient has exceeded the amount of Thoryil recommended.>
<Continuance of drug inducement at this time may result in liver
damage, thinning of blood or blindness.>
<Continue administering body functions?>
Quatre approached the monitor, stared down at the readings.
"It's getting more and more dangerous for her to remain in the mind
probe," he stated. "Already her body has absorbed as much Thoryil as
it can safely take. I think we should wake her up now."
"No," Hiroe said, looking down at Rika's tear-streaked face. "She
said she wanted us to see it all."
"But it's going to kill her," Quatre argued.
"She knows," was all Trowa said from across the room. He leaned
against the wall, his arms in his pockets, his head down. It was
obvious he wasn't going to say anymore.
Hiroe stepped towards the consol, and looked at it for a moment more.
Hesitantly, his finger finally reached out to the touch-screen towards
the YES prompt. Wu-Fei's hand snaked out and stopped him before he
could make contact with the screen.
"We stop, for now," was all he said, his tone hard.
A silent battle of wills commenced, but something in the Chinese boy's
manner had changed, and Hiroe wasn't ready to go to fists over it. He
silently nodded, and Wu-Fei released his firm grip on him. Hiroe's
finger touched the NO prompt, and immediately, the system began pumping
revitalizing nutrients into Rika's body, wakening her.
<Patient full consciousness in 9 minutes 58 seconds.>
The computer continued it's countdown, all the while, pushing the
toxins out of Rika's system...
TO BE CONTINUED....
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