Juliet's Goodbye

Narrator: After Colony 198: After a tough time with Revenge of the Lost, most of the pilots have felt it's sting. The good news is that Heero still has kept Relena safe, and with a month before a baby arrives, it's a good feeling. Everyone is close to putting a close on this as news starts to come out about Revenge of the Lost and arrests start being made. But news, doesn't mean that everything will always go well.

The vehicle eventually stopped. Trowa got off of it as he saw Dorothy Catalonia flung out of the van. She managed to land on her side.

"So? Dorothy Catalonia, leader of the mobile dolls," one of the women said to her. "If you survive this, you beat death by nature."

"Death by nature?" Dorothy tried to prop herself up. "Is that what you called poisoning me with some manmade hybrid flower? Just to see if I was strong enough to stick it out in pregnancy? No, that couldn't be it, because suddenly this is supposed to be the end of it all." She swayed slightly. "Goodness. I admit, I've seen my share of Romefeller's missions get screwed up. I've been on the other side of my own mistakes."

She swayed slightly the other way. "But, goodness? I have never seen the disorganized, absolutely amateurish moves of a bunch of women who are just moronic enough not to notice their enemy was the world's salvation." So much swaying. No, dancing? Twirling. "Goodness, really. Such a simple plan of pregnancy and killing in birth, just like their mothers? Couldn't even get that done, this is not some beautiful plan coming together to some deserved justice. This is scrambling around with fragments you managed to keep, to try and make it all look good." One of them slapped her.

She didn't care. "You know what Revenge of the Lost actually is? It's a kid on a playground, pointing at the teacher and crying about someone stealing your ball." One of them pulled a gun on her. "That's not death by nature." She just made a tisking sound. "Even now, you are willing to risk everyone's sense of what is left of your pathetic justice, by getting rid of the plan and just shooting me? My oh my, so many will understandably be so upset. Just keep straying far off the path, why not? You'll never find that path again."

No one shot her though as she stumbled backward to the ground. "I don't care what you do. Your feelings do not concern me. At the end, you can remember this. I feel no empathy for you, and I'm not screaming to give you any satisfaction. Ooh. That bad person will surely cough up something she regrets in her death." Her breathing got lighter. "I don't. I always followed what I felt was best. Well? I suppose if I have one regret, it would be over something I couldn't control." She moved her head around the ground, her hair getting tangled in the weeds. "I was never able to save Mister Treize."

"Shut up."

"Everyone wanted the same thing. No matter the group. No matter the methods. They all wanted the same thing, to stop each other. To stop the wars. That want to stop wars, to stop arguments, just led to more wars. More wars and more wars." She wiggled against the ground. "More wars and more wars. Only the people stopped it. The people. Not a group." She turned her head toward them. "You are all just like Duke Dermail. Just like Treize. Killing does not lead to anything but more killing, but you don't see it. You can't see what war will do, without experiencing it." She lied her head back down. "Why? Why are your . . . how are your . . ."

"See?" One of them said to her. "Your stupid comebacks aren't going to prevent what is happening to you. You're even crying, you can't ignore it. You can't stay strong forever."

"I'm not crying for me." She wiggled her head slightly. "You are all scurrying on the ground, unable to see the free sky just ablaze above you. By the time you look up, you'll have such regrets you'll never get to enjoy it. So many dark skies. Grief. Must. Be understood. Or you'll just repeat so many mistakes. So many. She would. There isn't anyone who wouldn't."

"She would what?" one of them asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Lost hearts. They would understand, but not this." Dorothy was saying something to them. Sensing something, that Trowa couldn't pick up. "Not this."

"What are you talking about?" Another one angrily asked. "What?!"

"Your portaying anger and happiness, but you are breaking down. You know the truth, deep inside." One of them went over and punched her on the nose. She held her bleeding nose. "That hurt us both."

"Come on. Red Emerald," the other one called over. "It's almost over. Forget what's she saying, it doesn't matter."

"I wouldn't care," the one that punched Dorothy's nose said to her. "I don't care what she would think, I'm a grown woman."

"Age has nothing to do with it." Her head lulled back further. "Her sorrow afterward." Dorothy closed her eyes.

Trowa watched as the one known as Red Emerald started to wipe tears from her face away.

"It's over. It's okay." The other woman hugged her. "It's more bittersweet because she couldn't shut up at the end."

"My." Red Emerald tried to speak. "She'd understand, my mother would understand. How d-dare sh-she. She didn't know her. How'd she ever? That was . . . low, like who . . .?"

Trowa watched Dorothy. All of her movements. Small motions. Her hair was just all tangled up in the weeds. Traces blowing in the wind. He watched her open her eyes once more. Her head sort of moved upward. Toward the vehicle. I'm sorry.

"It'll . . . be hard. He'll come back around." She closed her eyes again.

That was it. Trowa waited for another ten minutes before the other women went over and started to check her over. Will Quatre come back around? When I tell him, that I helped Middie Une do this? Every ounce of him wanted to collapse. Wanted to curl up somewhere. Revenge of the Lost was almost down for the count!

And he lost Quatre's . . . everything. Not only that. Middie. He had been so confident, he was so far away from the target. What did Dorothy do, dart five feet ahead? Did she get pulled at the time Middie was taking the shot? Middie. She would have nightmares over this. No, worse.

She'd want to end everything. He had to get back to her, before she made a mistake she regretted.

"Get the corpse's feet and I got the arms." Red Emerald was starting to move her to the back of the vehicle.

He moved away from the spot, waiting for them to head back forward. The back of the truck had been locked though, so he didn't see what else they had back there. Wang Mei-Lin. She had been caught too.

While she was being brought out, the other one started to get into the vehicle. They were going to take Dorothy away. The only comfort I can even bring Quatre is her body. Meanwhile? Wang Mei-Lin was alive and well, but probably not for long. I couldn't do anything for Dorothy, but I won't let her go out like that. He stayed behind.

Wang Mei-Lin kept her head high and her eyes closed as questions were asked of her.

"Anything you can give could potentially save your life," she was asked. "You aren't pregnant, you are of no real use to us. A bullet in the head is simple." She held it toward her temple. "Where are the other pilots?"

Nothing. No motion.

"Where are the other women?"

Nothing. Trowa came up closer.

"If you don't give us something, you die. Here and now. Our group has been exposed, do you think I'm going to be graceful about this?! Where are the other pilots?"

"I know where one of them are," she answered.

"Where?"

Trowa grabbed her, knocked her out, and took her gun. He felt around her to make sure she didn't have any more weapons. He moved over to check on Wang Mei-Lin. "Are you okay? I am Trowa Barton, a friend of Chang Wufei's."

She didn't change the position of her chin, only opened her eyes. "Miss Dorothy is dead. Isn't she?"

"Did they inject you with anything?" he asked her.

"We both heard something a ways away from us," Mei-Lin told him. "It didn't strike her. One of the women, when they saw it, grabbed Dorothy and stabbed her with something. I believe they were only waiting to kill her for that sign. Petty. Stupid." A deep breath. "Poor Dorothy."

"I knew I didn't mess up that shot." It was just to make Middie Une suffer. The results didn't change though for Dorothy.

"May I make a call?" Wang Mei-Lin asked. "I need to let Wufei know what happened."

"I will let them know." Middie was part of this mess, and Quatre should get the whole story. First? Middie Une thinks she just killed an innocent pregnant woman, and I had to leave her side. She was vulnerable to anything right now, and only protected by Gin. The first call should go to her well-being.

Trowa held his phone steady. "Duo."

"Trowa! I know I usually answer the phone better, but I'm driving with Hilde under my shoulder." He could hear the smile in his voice straight through the phone. "I got her. Strangest place ever, RTL had her trapped inside my gundam."

"Your gundam?" That was weird.

"Yep, I'm guessing they got some blueprint treasures from the scientist's trash too. It was like the first model when I went to Earth. I got her out, but they were messing with her mind using the zero system. She's slowly getting better."

"That's good to hear, Duo." Trowa was happy for his friend, but he couldn't keep dwelling on this. "I'm glad you got good news. I have bad news."

"Yeah, I'm hoping it doesn't have anything to do with Dorothy and Mei-Lin. They went missing from Quatre and Wufei. Poor Quatre is going nuts."

"We didn't kidnap them," Trowa said first. "We had to follow a lead Revenge of the Lost sent to us. I had Middie miss Dorothy on purpose. However . . . Wufei can come get Mei-Lin."

"Trowa?" Duo's voice had lifted. "You need to finish that sentence, Bud."

"They were just waiting for her to fire. Mei-Lin said it missed, like it should have, but they used the moment to stab Dorothy with something." It wasn't so bad with Duo. It would be ten times worse with Quatre. "I followed Dorothy, and I left Middie to your brother. She won't be in the best condition mentally, be very careful with her. Please let her know that it was a trick, she wasn't responsible."

"Dorothy's dead, isn't she?"

"Yes. I'm afraid so. I stayed behind from the vehicle when they separated Wang Mei-Lin from her," Trowa confessed.

"RTL is just getting arrested. Already making the news. This was almost done. I was really hoping we'd all be fine, and this would all be over."

"I am here with Wang Mei-Lin. I'll keep us safe. I have to tell him, face-to face." Quatre deserved it.

"Yeah, I get that. I'll call Wufei, tell him you found Mei-Lin. I'll let him know to bring Quatre. I'm sure he'll get the hint."

Trowa gave Duo his location and then looked toward Mei-Lin. "I'll get us a place for the night. They'll probably be here by morning. Do you need anything to eat?"

RTL Emergency Center 41

Dorothy opened her eyes again. She wasn't on the dirty ground anymore, instead she was lying on cement. She started to move around. All of the tingles and weakness was getting less, and she was able to move.

She was still handcuffed. Alive. Yet, clearly Revenge of the Lost was still playing games with her. "Ooh. Well, here is some fantastic role reversal. I've never been Juliet in this capacity before." They made her think she was dying. What brutality that had been.

"Up."

Dorothy couldn't stand yet real well, but she managed to use the wall to prop herself up. "Are you Superior or Crystalia? You certainly don't demonstrate the immaturity of the others." Keep it together.

She didn't answer. She took Dorothy's arm and led her away.

"Am I going to a third death trap?" she asked. The woman still didn't answer. "I went through one that needed flowers to get out. The second one had me playing the big moment as Juliet. What shall this one be, one cannot help but wonder. Flowers. Shakespeare. All we need are chocolates and jewelry for that added feminine flair. Oh wait, the jewelry has a hold of me." She brought Dorothy into another room. "Crystalia. Not quite the jewelry I had in mind. Then I guess my next death will be death by chocolate? That sounds delicious."

As they walked in, Dorothy got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "My, my. To stand in the presence of such a fine piece of history. I could have sworn the machine I named my baby after was blown up in one of the finest displays mankind could have ever witnessed."

The woman next to her she believed to be Crystalia still didn't speak. She took her up a strange elevator to go up closer to the gundam. When they got up higher, she helped Dorothy across a beam and ledge that led to the front of the cockpit. "Ooh. Interesting. So up close and personal."

"Stop faking," the woman said as she opened it. "Get in."