ShadowMoon - Fanfictions - Untitled by Hashiba

Untitled

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The year is After Colony 215. It has been 20 years since Earth and the Colonies have reached peace. Many of the soldiers who once fought in the wars have settled down to enjoy the quiet times and now have families, including the well-known Colonel Zechs Merquise and Lieutenant Noin. They have two teenage children, Rei and Juro.

Both are extremely well behaved and exceed at nearly everything they do. But, to the dismay of her parents, Rei has an almost obsessive interest in Mobile Suits and the wars that they were used in. These Mobile Suits, also known as MS, are humongous humanoid robots with cockpits in the torsos for their pilots. Someday, she hopes to be able to pilot one herself and fly up among the stars into battle...

* * * * *

"Hey, sis? Would you bring me the tool kit? I think I left it on the kitchen table."

Rolling her eyes, Rei grabbed the box and walked down stairs to the basement where her brother was working on reconstructing an MS cockpit, a project he'd undertaken on her behalf. He knew how much she'd wanted to pilot one, and this was as close to that dream as he could get her.

"You really ought to remember these things."

Juro looked up at her from underneath the bulkhead, one pale blonde eyebrow raised in amusement. "Do I detect a note of resentment in someone's voice? You know, you didn't have to bring this to me," he told her, taking the tool kit. He patted the large hunk of metal above his head. "I could just call this baby finished and leave it the way it is..."

"No! I mean, it's ok. I don't really mind bringing it down. I was going to come see how you were coming along on this anyways."

"Yeah, uh-huh. Sure..." He shook his head and disappeared once again beneath the half-finished paneling.

It was silent for a while, only the clanking and clattering of metal tools against metal parts and the occasional hiss of a loose hose or pipe. The quiet was interrupted by an angry yelp from under the bulkhead, and Juro slid out, holding his temple.

"Owwwwwww..." he whined. Frustrated, he shook his head. "I can't seem to get those parts to fit right! I don't know why! I wish there were a model or something I could look at..."

A thought popped into Rei's head, and she mulled over it silently in her mind, biting her tongue for fear of a strict admonishment from her dear sibling. She knew he knew where they were. When she could bear it no longer, she finally squeaked out, "Where did Mom and Dad leave their Mobile Suits? Maybe you could look off one of them and-"

"No."

"But-"

"No. You know they would never let us even go within 1,000 meters of them, much less poke around in the cockpits."

Rei hung her head. "Yeah, I know..." With a sigh, she turned to leave. "Too bad we don't know where they are anyways."

"Well, you don't..."

She froze.

Realizing he'd let the truth slip, Juro tried to cover up his mistake. "Well, um, not that I do..."

"Oh, yeah right. You are the worst liar I've ever known." Rei's eyes glazed over as her mind drifted a million miles away, to a battle high above Earth. Then, without warning, she snapped back and, with a devilish grin, took off up stairs to her room.

At first, Juro was tempted to follow and make sure she wasn't getting into any trouble. But, after thinking it over, he decided against it. If she was up to something, there was nothing he could do to stop her. He looked up at the ceiling where his sister's room was located above him.

Please don't do anything stupid...

* * * * *

Up in her room, Rei sat in the dark in front of her computer, clicking away through some files she knew she shouldn't be in. But the information she sought had to be in there somewhere, so she was willing to take any risks necessary to find it.

After hours of fruitless searching, she was almost ready give up when she came across a file she couldn't access. Her interest piqued, she began to try and hack into it. Maybe this was what she'd been looking for. She managed to get through every block except one, the final password. None of the old hacking equipment her brother had given to her had worked; it couldn't even read the programming. Some help this stuff is, she thought, tossing it back onto her bed disdainfully. I guess I'll have to go about it the old fashioned way.

And so she began typing in every word, number, code, and name she could think of that her parents might possibly have used to hide their secret. After her umpteenth attempt had been rejected, she was almost on the verge of screaming. Why didn't any of these work? What could her parents possibly have entered that would be so obvious to them but not to her? She paused, running her fingers back through her long hair. What if only one of them had typed in the code? She could try narrowing her search down that way... With a nod of decision, she set back to work.

* * * * *

Noin sighed. It was time for dinner, and Rei was still up in her room. Why was she suddenly spending so much more time up there? She looked over at where her son sat. He was unusually quiet.

"Is something wrong, Juro?"

He looked up, startled. "Hm? Oh, no. Just a little tired, I guess. I hit my head working today too. I'm probably still a little disoriented from it and, um, well I've been really frustrated by that darn thing down there because I can't seem to get things to fit together right and-"

Something was making him nervous, that much she could tell. First, he was quiet and then, all of the sudden, he was babbling incessantly.

"All right..." she said, reluctantly accepting his word. She changed the subject. "Why don't you go up and get your sister? She's been up there all day. Tell her I said to set the table."

"Ok," Juro replied, eager to leave the room and avoid further questioning.

* * * * *

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" With another howl of frustration, Rei slammed her fist down on the desk. None of these were working! Why?! There were only so many possibilities. She'd tried every one she could come up with. She'd covered everything she could possibly think of that her mother her might use, and nearly everything her father would use. First to last. A to Z and back again. Every single person, place, and thing either of them had ever mentioned in her entire lifetime and not one of them had worked.

Just a little longer, she told herself. If it doesn't work, just forget about it until later.

Sighing, she once again placed her hands on the keys and began clicking away.

"Sanq."

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"Dang! Um, Sanq Kingdom?"

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"Dang it! Uh, let's see... MO III?"

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"Argggghhh! What about, um, -" she paused. A system. A name. What was that name? Her father had mentioned it only once. She'd thought it was familiar, from one of her history textbooks, but he'd claimed to have been talking about something else. A system by the same name...

"Aghhhhh! What is it?! I know it! I know it! I know I know it!" She banged her head on her desk. "This is going to drive me insane! Just like that ZER- That's it!" With newfound energy, she typed in the name.

"ZERO."

Beeeeep!

"Yeeeeeeeeeesss! Password: accepted!"

"What password?" came an all too familiar voice from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her chair.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said nonchalantly. Acting casual, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, she saved the file and her progress and then shut down the computer. Turning to her brother, she asked, "May I help you?"

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a little hacking game I found. I've been playing around with it."

Juro gave her an uncertain look. "Sounds fun," he told her, using a tone that told her plainly he didn't believe a word of it. He lightened his mood suddenly, putting on a show of indifference. "Well, Mom said to come downstairs and set the table."

"Ok, I'll be there in a minute. I've just got to wash up."

Juro motioned to the equipment on the bed. "Cheating, were we?" Then, without saying anything further, her brother turned and tromped down the stairs, closing the door behind him and leaving her standing alone in the dark.

* * * * *

Once she had been dismissed from the dinner table, Rei ran upstairs to her room and began to once again work on her newfound project. Now that she had done the hard part, getting into the file itself, she could focus her attention on figuring out where the MS was hidden.

She scanned the pages of endless text quickly, not seeing anything of interest.

"Where could it be?" She sighed. "What's the point of all this stuff being here? It has nothing to do with-" She fell silent and her eyes narrowed on a line, not apparently any different from the others, and she stared at it long and hard.

Coordinates. They had to be. She rubbed her hands excitedly. This was it! Now, all she had to do was get there...

* * * * *

Late that night, Juro lay awake in bed, staring up at his ceiling and listening for any inkling of a sound that might be heard. He hadn't the slightest idea as to why he was up, he just had a feeling something was going to happen soon. He wasn't disappointed.

At a little past midnight, he heard a muffled thump from up in his sister's room. He leapt out of his tangled sheets and dashed upstairs, not sure what to expect. Whatever he'd thought he'd find, however, was not what he discovered. An empty bed, neatly made, and no sister in sight.

"Where the heck did she go?" he mumbled to himself. Then he noticed the open window.

* * * * *

Rei panted hard as she limped back behind the small storage shed on the side of the house. Her brother had been awake! When he'd come charging up the stairs, she'd had no choice but to leap out the window. Hopefully, he hadn't seen her. Or at least not where she'd gone...

Please don't say anything to Mom and Dad, she pleaded silently in her mind. She hated deceiving him, but she couldn't let him know. He'd never let her go. He'd be too concerned with her safety. She sighed.

Then, wincing at the pain it caused, she hobbled over to her bike, hopped on, and took off for the spaceport.

* * * * *

"Dang it!"

Juro cursed himself. He knew he shouldn't have let her be alone in there! She'd found something out, probably the coordinates of the Tallgeese III. Now she was off chasing it down. He sighed and shook his head. Now he had to chase her...

* * * * *

As soon as Rei approached the docking bay, she made sure to place her bike carefully in its normal spot on the rack where she always left it when she came down to get parts for her brother. Now, if she had to walk home for some reason, she could simply say her bike had never been home.

Making sure that no one was in sight, she slipped into the building and began hot-wiring the lock on one of the unused crafts.

* * * * *

Juro slowed as he approached the spaceport. He knew she'd have gone around here somewhere. Where could she be? His eyes fell upon the bay and he noticed a figure moving about, obviously attempting to stay unnoticed. He headed towards the building, not knowing for the second time that night what to expect. Or what to do once he got there.

* * * * *

As soon as Rei heard the sound of approaching footsteps, her heart started to pound. Come on, she prayed silently, hoping the doors would just hurry up and open. She couldn't let herself be caught, even by her brother, who probably wouldn't even tell her parents what she'd been doing. She glared at the doors and they slid apart with a gratifying hiss! She leapt inside, locking the doors after her.

"Sorry Juro," she whispered.

* * * * *

Juro ran inside just in time to see a small craft take off. Without thinking, he ran over to where his parents' official Preventers ship was and punched in the codes. The door hissed open and he dashed into the cockpit, not even taking the time to seal the hatch until he was already lifting off.

* * * * *

Once out of the atmosphere, Rei breathed a sigh of relief. She had been able to escape without being seen. Except for...

She gave a long, low, frustrated growl. Why had her brother felt it was necessary to go up and check on her? He'd probably been the one who'd been trying to get into the docking bay too. In fact, she was almost positive. But there wasn't anything he could've done once he got inside. Mom and Dad wouldn't have given him the codes for their ship; they had no reason to. She froze for a moment at one thought.

I hope he doesn't say anything to them...

She gave a shaky sigh. He probably wouldn't. But he'd sure as heck chew her out when she got back. Still, she had pushed the limits on this one. He might feel it was necessary to tell just because of her safety.

Oh please, please don't say anything...

* * * * *

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"This is it. The Tallgeese! I can't believe it!" She let out an excited breath. As the dim lights flickered and danced across her face, she felt the anticipation grow. "Oh, c'mon you slow thing! Hurry up!"

Finally, over the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears, there came a low humming, slowly building in strength. The power surged through the Mobile Suit, penetrating into even its sole passenger.

Rei's eyes glazed over. This was the best! Finally, she could pilot this sleek, monstrously powerful weapon out through space just as she had in her dreams every night of her life. With a trembling hand, she reached out and pressed the button that started up the boosters. Pulling back on the lever, she felt her stomach drop to her feet, but her heart was up pounding between her ears. She gave a yell of pure joy as she shot out of the docking bay and into the vast expanse of stars before her.

* * * * *

Juro watched sadly as the blue and white armored suit shot out of its resting-place and went spiraling off through the strata. She probably didn't even know he was there. Hopefully, his parents had left the Taurus in storage too. Otherwise, there would be nothing he could do if and when his sister got carried away.

Sighing, he sped towards the small chunk of floating rock that continued in its orbit around the small, distant green and blue marble known as Earth, seemingly oblivious to all that was happening in and around it.

* * * * *

Rei's breathing became ragged and heavy as the first wave of adrenaline wore off. She felt a wave of disappointment come over her.

"There's gotta be more to it than this. I wish I had something to battle with. I wonder..." She spun around and scanned the sky. Sure enough, there was plenty of debris floating about the planet. Much of it was even parts of old warships and Mobile Suits. It was perfect target practice. She took the weapons joysticks in her hands.

* * * * *

Juro floated cautiously out of the docking bay in the Taurus, peering around the edge to see where his sister was. To his horror, he saw that she was blasting everything in sight.

He sent a quick message to his parents, saying that there was no way for them to come and stop what was happening up in space above Earth once they were alerted to the fact the Tallgeese was on the loose. He had taken their shuttle up to try and do what he could. There was no reason for them to worry. He would return as soon as everything was worked out. Once it was sent, he gave a heavy sigh and pushed off from the rocky edge of the bay. He hadn't been sure whether or not to say it was his sister that was piloting the stolen MS, but he'd decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she came peacefully, maybe mom and dad wouldn't have to know it had been her. Until then, he'd have to try and figure out how to get near enough without being shot.

* * * * *

It wasn't very challenging, this exercise she had devised. At least, it wasn't at first. After a few minutes, she began to try it while doing tricks. She found this to be more to her liking. The targets were a bit harder to focus on when she was spiraling backwards or back flipping. She was getting so caught up in it all, she didn't notice the strange golden lights that were beginning to flicker on around her or the strange beeping that was coming from the console.

The stats coming from the computers were not even being seen by her eyes; they were being transferred directly to her brain. All the scraps and parts were coming to life before her eyes and she was more determined than ever to take them all out.

"Heh. Heh heh. None of you are gonna make it out of here. You hear me?!"

* * * * *

Juro swallowed nervously. His sister wasn't behaving normally. She was becoming way too proficient. Her reaction time and skills had never been that advanced. What was happening?

Oh no, not ZERO... He pounded his fist on the armrest. No! If ZERO took over, there's no way I can do anything! She's gone nuts!

"Well," he told himself, "There's only one thing I can do." With a sigh of disappointment, he pressed down on the booster and shot off towards his sister.

* * * * *

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep!

Her head shot up. A new target? Oh, and it was approaching fast. Good. She enjoyed chasing moving targets much more. This one would be more of a challenge.

She brought it up on visuals. A white Taurus. Something clicked in the back of her mind. White Taurus... familiar... ally?

ZERO cleared that thought immediately. There were no allies in a battle. She swung her rifle around to target the approaching figure. A buzz came in over the communication system.

"Rei? Are you -ere? Can y-ear me? Stop righ-ow! Sto-"

With a growl, Rei reached over and turned the radio off. Stop. Yeah, right. Things were just getting interesting. If this fool was dumb enough to think he could challenge her and then try to retreat, he had made a grave error. She pressed down on the firing stud.

* * * * *

Juro watched in shock as his sister responded to his plea with a burst of laser fire. He managed to dodge most of it, but he was still hit hard in the arm. His suit just wasn't as fast as the Tallgeese. There was no way he could possibly keep avoiding every shot fired at him. He was going to lose thing unless he could come up with something fast.

While he sat contemplating this, Rei flew up behind him and fired a rapid succession of blasts at him as she went. She looped around him, making it impossible for all the blasts. Nearly all of them connected, rendering his left arm totally useless and actually more of a crippling impediment than a useless limb. But there was no to get rid of it unless he dropped his gun. He knew it and she knew it.

Not giving him any time to think, she began to fire again, blasting the left side hard and removing some of the safety paneling. He was smarter than she anticipated. He rolled his arm into the line of fire and she ended up blasting off the limb. He didn't gain much from that though.

Now she had a dangerously clear shot at his head, the function center of much of his suit. She let the shots fly. He managed to move his head out of the line of fire, but his suit was now off balance and he once again exposed his left side to her merciless fire. It was ripped apart, revealing part of the cockpit. The engines sizzled and sparked from the sliced connections and wires. Half of them weren't even functioning.

He made a meek attempt to fly back towards the docking bay, but it had drifted further away during their battle. There was no way he would make it back before she finished him off.

At least he'd been smart enough to wear a suit. The lack of oxygen would have killed him by now otherwise.

His back was to her. Now was the time to shoot, ZERO told her. His most vulnerable spot. The engines faced her, halfway ready to explode on their own. The cross hairs lined up. All she had to do was fire, just one shot, and they would blow up, taking the rest of the suit with them.

Without hesitating, she almost gleefully jabbed her finger down on the firing stud and watched as the bright beam of light lanced out of the tip of her weapon and connected squarely with the back of the enemy.

Somehow, through the turned off radio, she was able to hear the yell of her victim as he felt the heat of the laser and the explosion ripped through his suit. It sent a chill down her spine.

The light faded slowly from the dark sky, and the few remaining parts and the hundreds of still smoldering dust particles slowly drifted apart, shimmering like a silvery cloud.

Quite suddenly, the cockpit began to grow dimmer. ZERO began to shut itself down, sensing that there were no more battles to be fought. It all became quiet, except for the echoing scream in her mind. She didn't even remember what had happened. She looked up again and saw the dissipating cloud. What had that been? An old Taurus maybe? It looked like it. She shook her head. She'd lost track of what was going on.

Now, however, it was time to go home. Hopefully, Rei hadn't told anyone where she'd gone.

* * * * *

Once she managed to get back to the colony, Rei quickly went and got her bike, then rode home as fast as she could. Her parents were waiting for her when she got back.

At first, she thought she'd been ratted out and that they were mad at her. But, once they didn't start to yell, she knew this was not the case. Instead, they seemed worried and almost a little sad.

"Where's your brother?" Noin asked anxiously.

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "We both went down to the docking bay but he didn't want me to go up and see what was happening. Did you know that the Tallgeese was stolen?"

"Yes," her father said, sounding like he was ready to start crying. He never did that. "Your brother went up to try and bring the Tallgeese back. We had hoped the reports were wrong and that he'd come back with you."

"What reports?"

"The Taurus he was piloting was found destroyed up where the battle took place," Her mother told her. "It was just a cloud of debris by the time anyone got there."

Untitled

Hashiba

* * * * *

"Hey, sis? Would you bring me the tool kit? I think I left it on the kitchen table."

"You really ought to remember these things."

"No! I mean, it's ok. I don't really mind bringing it down. I was going to come see how you were coming along on this anyways."

"Yeah, uh-huh. Sure..." He shook his head and disappeared once again beneath the half-finished paneling.

"Owwwwwww..." he whined. Frustrated, he shook his head. "I can't seem to get those parts to fit right! I don't know why! I wish there were a model or something I could look at..."

"No."

"But-"

"No. You know they would never let us even go within 1,000 meters of them, much less poke around in the cockpits."

Rei hung her head. "Yeah, I know..." With a sigh, she turned to leave. "Too bad we don't know where they are anyways."

"Well, you don't..."

She froze.

Realizing he'd let the truth slip, Juro tried to cover up his mistake. "Well, um, not that I do..."

Please don't do anything stupid...

* * * * *

Noin sighed. It was time for dinner, and Rei was still up in her room. Why was she suddenly spending so much more time up there? She looked over at where her son sat. He was unusually quiet.

"Is something wrong, Juro?"

Something was making him nervous, that much she could tell. First, he was quiet and then, all of the sudden, he was babbling incessantly.

"All right..." she said, reluctantly accepting his word. She changed the subject. "Why don't you go up and get your sister? She's been up there all day. Tell her I said to set the table."

"Ok," Juro replied, eager to leave the room and avoid further questioning.

* * * * *

Just a little longer, she told herself. If it doesn't work, just forget about it until later.

Sighing, she once again placed her hands on the keys and began clicking away.

"Sanq."

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"Dang! Um, Sanq Kingdom?"

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"Dang it! Uh, let's see... MO III?"

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

"ZERO."

Beeeeep!

"Yeeeeeeeeeesss! Password: accepted!"

"What password?" came an all too familiar voice from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her chair.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a little hacking game I found. I've been playing around with it."

"Ok, I'll be there in a minute. I've just got to wash up."

* * * * *

She scanned the pages of endless text quickly, not seeing anything of interest.

Coordinates. They had to be. She rubbed her hands excitedly. This was it! Now, all she had to do was get there...

* * * * *

"Where the heck did she go?" he mumbled to himself. Then he noticed the open window.

* * * * *

Then, wincing at the pain it caused, she hobbled over to her bike, hopped on, and took off for the spaceport.

* * * * *

"Dang it!"

* * * * *

Making sure that no one was in sight, she slipped into the building and began hot-wiring the lock on one of the unused crafts.

* * * * *

"Sorry Juro," she whispered.

* * * * *

Once out of the atmosphere, Rei breathed a sigh of relief. She had been able to escape without being seen. Except for...

I hope he doesn't say anything to them...

Oh please, please don't say anything...

* * * * *

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Finally, over the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears, there came a low humming, slowly building in strength. The power surged through the Mobile Suit, penetrating into even its sole passenger.

* * * * *

Rei's breathing became ragged and heavy as the first wave of adrenaline wore off. She felt a wave of disappointment come over her.

* * * * *

Juro floated cautiously out of the docking bay in the Taurus, peering around the edge to see where his sister was. To his horror, he saw that she was blasting everything in sight.

* * * * *

"Heh. Heh heh. None of you are gonna make it out of here. You hear me?!"

* * * * *

Juro swallowed nervously. His sister wasn't behaving normally. She was becoming way too proficient. Her reaction time and skills had never been that advanced. What was happening?

Oh no, not ZERO... He pounded his fist on the armrest. No! If ZERO took over, there's no way I can do anything! She's gone nuts!

"Well," he told himself, "There's only one thing I can do." With a sigh of disappointment, he pressed down on the booster and shot off towards his sister.

* * * * *

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep!

Her head shot up. A new target? Oh, and it was approaching fast. Good. She enjoyed chasing moving targets much more. This one would be more of a challenge.

She brought it up on visuals. A white Taurus. Something clicked in the back of her mind. White Taurus... familiar... ally?

ZERO cleared that thought immediately. There were no allies in a battle. She swung her rifle around to target the approaching figure. A buzz came in over the communication system.

"Rei? Are you -ere? Can y-ear me? Stop righ-ow! Sto-"

* * * * *

He made a meek attempt to fly back towards the docking bay, but it had drifted further away during their battle. There was no way he would make it back before she finished him off.

At least he'd been smart enough to wear a suit. The lack of oxygen would have killed him by now otherwise.

Somehow, through the turned off radio, she was able to hear the yell of her victim as he felt the heat of the laser and the explosion ripped through his suit. It sent a chill down her spine.

The light faded slowly from the dark sky, and the few remaining parts and the hundreds of still smoldering dust particles slowly drifted apart, shimmering like a silvery cloud.

Now, however, it was time to go home. Hopefully, Rei hadn't told anyone where she'd gone.

* * * * *

Once she managed to get back to the colony, Rei quickly went and got her bike, then rode home as fast as she could. Her parents were waiting for her when she got back.

At first, she thought she'd been ratted out and that they were mad at her. But, once they didn't start to yell, she knew this was not the case. Instead, they seemed worried and almost a little sad.

"Where's your brother?" Noin asked anxiously.

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "We both went down to the docking bay but he didn't want me to go up and see what was happening. Did you know that the Tallgeese was stolen?"

"What reports?"

"The Taurus he was piloting was found destroyed up where the battle took place," Her mother told her. "It was just a cloud of debris by the time anyone got there."