"This means we don't know anything, doesn't it."In one of the rooms of Relena's private residence, located in Sanc Kingdom, the butler Pagan is sitting before a computer terminal and tapping busily on the keyboard. He looks through huge amounts of information sent to him, sorts out what he deems necessary and additionally goes looking for detailed information.
"I cannot verify whether the pilot of the Gundam which self-destructed in the Siberia base is alive or not."
Pagan says this without turnings his eyes away from the monitor.
"I see."
Standing by the window, Relena answers in a depressed voice.
Since OZ's coup d'etat, there has been no information regarding Heero, and even OZ does not seem to hold any information regarding the Gundam pilots.
But Heero is alive!
Relena is convinced of this.
"I wanted to contact Major Zechs, the OZ pilot who fought with that Gundam, but he has already moved from the Lake Victoria base and I have not been able to contact him so far."
"This means we don't know anything, doesn't it."
"No, there is one thing we do know."
At Pagan's words, Relena turns around to face him.
"And what is that?"
"There is a strange point in Major Zechs' actions."
"A strange point?"
"It's that, after the battle in Siberia, Major Zechs has had huge amounts of Gundanium alloy transported to him."
After saying 'aah...', Relena murmurs with a sigh "That must be to repair the recovered Gundam. Even I know that the destruction of the Gundam has been ordered since the inner core of OZ is aware of this."
"No, the information has come in that, in reality, this Gundam may have been a dummy, and that there's a large scale investigation party of OZ working on it."
"A dummy?"
"It seems that the ordered amount of Gundanium is more than enough to construct two mobile suits."
"You mean that they used part of it for the dummy, in order to have it destroyed, and the rest was used for restoration purposes?"
"That's probable. It seems OZ thinks the same."
"Why is he so particular about the Gundam?"
"He probably wants to settle this. He is such a man."
Pagan sounds as if he's yearning for these old times when he tells Relena of them.
"Thirteen years ago, he was six years old. I was younger too at that time and it happened that I went out to European tournaments with competition in sable fencing. Sometimes I acted then as the opponent to Zechs' swordsmanship. Even if he was still small, Major Zechs' attacks were sharp and strong. At one time, when I didn't completely dodge but pushed it away with the sword while using a bit of force, my sword broke at the base. When this happened, he suddenly rushed over to the wall, took a replacement sword and held it out to me. He doesn't like it when his opponent has a handicap."
"Do you know Major Zechs?"
"He is a hero of the Peacecrafts. There are many epic stories about him."
"I see. If we contact Major Zechs, we may learn something about Heero."
Pagan cuts off Relena's murmuring with an astonished voice.
"It seems there's somebody else looking for Heero Yuy too."
"Who is it?"
"Mrs. Noventa."
"Noventa?"
"Yes. The wife of Field Marshall Noventa, the commander-in-chief of the Alliance, who was killed by your Gundam friend in New Edwards. It seems this action is also a secret to OZ."
What could it be?
Relena turns her head.
The existence of Heero and the other Gundam pilots had to be a top secret matter even inside OZ. Isn't it strange for a civilian, even if she is the wife of the commander-in-chief, to know this? Besides, she even knows his name.
There is something.
Knowing this intuitively, Relena tells Pagan "Please contact Mrs. Noventa right away."
"Understood."
Nodding at Relena's words, Pagan starts tapping again on the keyboard.
At that time, Heero is in the hangar of Noin's mobile suit cargo plane. The plane is flying toward a destination unknown to him. However, there's something more important to Heero than knowing where the destination is.
In the hangar, two Aries are in the vicinity of the rear hatch, while Heavyarms, lying on its trailer, has been placed near the cockpit. Heero is sitting in Heavyarms' cockpit and has grasped the left and right control levers as if to verify their feeling.
Heero wants to learn by heart the special characteristics of Heavyarms since he's going to use it in the duel.
"Is the balance adjusted automatically with regard to the weight of the left arm?"
Heero asks this of Trowa after he pushes the left control lever slightly away and lifts Heavyarms' arm.
"No, I didn't need to. I had my body memorize the swift move to close combat."
"I see."
Nodding at the response, Heero pulls on the control lever.
When the left arm of Heavyarms is equipped with the Gatling canon, it's even heavier than Wing's left arm. Heero is asking whether this is automatically regulated and the weight transmitted by the control lever will be reduced or not when the control lever is pulled. Trowa's answer in this respect means that, when the Gatling canon runs out of bullets and he thinks about removing the barrel, he doesn't have to perform an adjustment.
"Is the shield installed on the Gatling arm as well?"
"That will be quite heavy."
Heero pushes once again the control lever away, then he pushes it down one notch and pulls. Heavyarms' left arm rises and the outer side opens.
"Uh...."
From inside Heero's throat comes a sound of suffering. Pain runs through his not-completely-healed left arm. Enduring it, Heero somehow brings the control lever back into its former position.
"I'm sorry. Usually we wouldn't let another person touch our own mobile suit."
"If you think so, then learn its characteristics quickly."
"Yes. And this time I'll defeat this guy!"
Heero nods to Trowa.
As Noin is watching the state of the two from the entry hatch to the hangar, a smile lingers in the corners of her mouth.
"Doing this, they don't vary from normal pilots. That these are the Gundam pilots...."
Noin herself has a connection to a Gundam pilot. A boy named Chang Wufei who is almost the same as these two. This is something that has happened already more than two months ago.
"Strange people..." murmurs Noin.
The captain, Charles, approaches her and whispers into her ear with a subdued voice.
"If we finish them off now, we could end this without putting Major Zechs in any danger."
"You don't understand this yet. If you do such a thing, Zechs will be very angry with you."
After dismissing Charles' words and slapping him onto the shoulder, Noin returns to the cockpit.
Relena is sitting at the desk in her private room. At the sound of knocking she lifts her head.
As the present head of the Peacecraft family and the sovereign of Sanc Kingdom, Relena has many things to do. And on top of that, how can she spread total pacifism in the world? She has to think about how to do this. While OZ's world domination advances steadily, Relena considers this to be an urgent business.
"Please come in."
"Allow me."
Together with the voice, the butler Pagan comes in.
"I have contacted Mrs. Noventa and this letter has arrived. She wishes for it to arrive with Ms. Relena's help."
Pagan presents to Relena a paper which has been folded two times.
"From Mrs. Noventa?"
"Yes, it's addressed to Heero Yuy."
"To Heero?"
Relena accepts the letter. It seems Mrs. Noventa has sent a handwritten letter with a message, written in very neat handwriting.
'Your sudden visit startled me and I think I was not able to convey well to you what was in my heart. That's why I decided to write up this letter. My husband and Ventei died when they wanted to create a world where pure boys like you could live cheerfully. I have no regret. This is war. A past where mistakes have happened is hard for everybody. However, you are still young. Please think of creating a future. The whole family is proud to have met you. I wish for a day soon when there will be a world without fighting.
To the dear Heero Yuy.'
Relena understands immediately, what this letter means, and raises a cry of joy inside herself.
Heero is alive! He is alive after all!!
"Pagan, I will head to Sicily right away. I will meet Mrs. Noventa and ask her where Heero is."
"Understood. I'll prepare the fast plane."
After bowing, the white-haired butler leaves Relena's private room behind him.
After she has exited the cockpit and descended into the hangar, Noin steps below the two at the cockpit of the Gundam.
Noin has put on a white arctic coat over her OZ uniform. Because they are high up, the temperature has dropped. In the cockpit, the heating is having an effect, but in the hangar there is no such thing. NoinÕs breath vaporizes in the cold air.
"It would be inconvenient if our important guests caught a cold. Please put these on."
After saying this, Noin holds out arctic coats. The two are still wearing the thin shirts they put on in Sicily.
When the two have descended from the cockpit, Noin waits until they have put on the coats. Then she hands them coffee cups, from which steam is rising.
While Heero, due to his left arm which he can't use freely, takes some time to put on the coat, Trowa accepts the two cups and asks Noin "Where are we going?"
Judging that it's fine to already tell them, Noin opens her mouth.
"To the South Pole."
"A mobile suit battle on a continent covered by ice?"
"Because there are no people in such a place who could notice us."
Trowa nods at Noin's words.
"Indeed."
While he murmurs this, he hands one cup to Heero who has finally slipped his arms into the sleeves.
"We are finished with the adjustments we can do now. Once we arrive there, could you let us use the factory? Is that okay?"
"I don't mind."
Heero nods at Noin's answer and drains his coffee.
"Is there a place where we can rest a bit?"
"There's a room for pilots to rest at the end. You may use that."
Both of them leave, heading towards the door Noin has pointed out. It seems that Heero's weariness is indeed visible in his steps.
At the South Pole, in an old base for exploitation of natural resources, the restoration of Gundam 01 is advanced at top speed. The exterior is already the same as before. What remains is the restoration of the functional parts.
The responsible engineer, Maser, is relieved to finally see light at the end of the tunnel and reports to Zechs who has just entered the factory.
"Major Zechs, all parts necessary to fulfill the estimated level of capacity have been restored."
However, Zechs replies with a voice which sounds discontent.
"We will be in trouble with the estimated level. I want it to be completely as before."
"Why is that? Why are you so particular about it?"
"I want to know about it, the mobile suit and the pilot who boards it. That's why it has to fight in a finished condition."
"But, the complete restoration of the suit's right hand is not possible. To restore the power to wield the huge beam canon and the system to handle the beam saber sensitively would require about the same time as to manufacture a new mobile suit. It won't work like with the dummy."
"Then complete at least the system for the beam saber system of 01 with parts from the left arm of Tallgeese."
Maser is shocked at what Zechs says. It's usually unthinkable to take away parts from the own mobile suit. Besides, Zechs wants to fight with this opponent.
"Major Zechs, what is it that you want to do?"
Maser's question is probably a natural thing.
"Forgive me and my sentimentality."
However, Zechs murmurs only this and doesn't want to say much.
"Understood."
Maser lets his shoulders drop, as if he's giving up.
"Everybody, get together for a moment. I'll give out the new orders as to the restoration of the parts of 01's right arm."
As soon as Zechs has left, Maser raises the call to assemble the engineers.