Treize's shuttle lands on an OZ carrier, and he's transported over to his... giant yacht? Wow, this guy's got everything. He leaves disposal of the Gundams in the hands of Une (which actually brings a smile to her face. How sweet).

Wu Fei and Trowa, now extra surly from having been used, steal some transport planes from the New Edwards base (ignoring various traps along the way since, y'know, they ARE wearing indestructible giant robots) and head off after Treize. Duo and Quatre fight off remaining Alliance forces, and try to prod Heero out of his stunned state. Heero gets pounded around a bit, not that this matters since he's still, y'know, in an indestructible giant robot.

Une orders some Specials troops to set off the missiles in the New Edwards base. Hey, there's an idea. Nuke the Gundams! Nuke 'em! Yay! They're surprised at the level of over-kill she has in mind (all 47 nukes?) but hey, orders are orders. Meanwhile, some Alliance loyalists land a transport nearby, led by... Major Sally (the officer who had captured Heero way back when). She realizes what's happening (since everyone's still using the same radio frequency) and heads to the control room to try and talk the Specials out of it. They activate the detonation timer anyway. Whoops. Sally, however, gets on the base PA system and yells at Heero to go stop the nukes, which shakes him out of his funk (and gets Duo thinking 'nukes? time to go!'). Sally waxes poetic about how cool Heero is (despite the fact that he'd probably as soon kill her as look at her). Heero gets in and dis-arms the missile detonation sequence by the simple expedient of hitting the detonator a few times.

Une reports to Treize about her failure, but he's actually a bit pleased. It wouldn't do to go nuking large portions of the Earth, since, y'know, they have to live here and all. They banter, and he remarks that soon she'll have to learn a bit more about the OZ organization. It's also revealed that only the Alliance headquarters in Luxembourg still resists OZ.

In Luxembourg, that fortified stronghold of resistance (snicker), Noin muses a bit outside while inside, the base commander rants a bit about how the Specials were idiots if they expected the headquarters of the Alliance to just surrender. They'll never get in, he insists, at which point Zechs steps out of the shadows behind him. Zechs comments idly about how the base commmander was responsible for wiping out the royal family of one of the kingdoms that resisted the formation of the Alliance (wait, I thought the Peacecrafts were from the colonies... oh, buggrit. Guess not.), making an example of the San kingdom (the who?). The officer is baffled by this, for a moment, before it suddenly clicks and he realizes Zechs is one of the Peacecraft family who managed to get away. Having enlightened him, Zechs promptly shoots him, making vaguely vengeful comments.

Now we know why he wears that hat. Must be trying to hide his identity as a Peacenik. Er, Peacecraft.

On the bridge of the OZ carrier, Une muses that she might actually not know everything there is about Treize, which unsettles her. She's stirred out of her musings, however, when two transports attempt to land... she immediately figures out what's up and orders them shot down, but it's too late. Both transports crash into ships of the fleet, and out pop... Gundams! A fight breaks out as the OZ troops try and get the Gundams off their ships, with the OZ mobile suits getting shot to pieces as they try and launch. Une comes up with an idea (why are the villains the only ones who have ideas?) and has a suit launch down the carrier's catapult, tackling the Gundam (Trowa's) standing on deck and hurling it into the water, where OZ's underwater mobile suits are waiting to be bravely destroyed. Wu Fei makes for Treize's ship, but Une (now able to launch her suit now that the carrier's deck has been cleared) takes off in a modified Leo mobile suit (the ones that look like generic brand giant robots are the Leos) and scuffles with him a bit. She gives up the temporary surprise advantage to taunt Wu Fei a bit, however, and he's soon pulling a Monty Python on her ("Your arm's off!" "No it isn't!" "What's that then?!" "C'mon, ya pansy!"). Treize intervenes before Une's suit loses too many limbs, however, and challenges Wu Fei... without a mobile suit? Wu Fei obligingly gets out of his suit, and the two... duel? With swords?

Treize defeats Wu Fei with humiliating ease, but permits the Gundam pilot to leave with his life. After all, he did get out of the Gundam instead of merely stomping on Treize. Wu Fei, shocked at the magnitude of his suckiness, just walks off the deck in his Gundam and sinks for a while. Trowa wonders what happened, then finally realizes that Wu Fei got a smack-down, and decides to just drop it.

Next time: Zechs takes his hat off! Be there!

Rant 'o the day contains no additives, preservatives or alien spores of any kind. Use only as directed. Do not expose to direct sunlight. Do not fold, spindle, multilate or remove identifying tags. Handle with care. Contains less than 3% milk fat by weight, not by volume. Certified 'Syndicate Approved'. Squeeze the lemon. Remember, kids, only users lose drugs.

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