| Endless Waltz |
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| The Story |
| At the climax of the Eve Wars, on December 24 of the year AC 195, the armies of the World Nation and White Fang met in a ferocious battle. World Nation leader Treize Khushrenada was slain, White Fang leader Zechs Merquise disappeared, and Earth was saved from destruction by the intervention of the five Gundam pilots. Having witnessed the consequences of war and hatred, the people of Earth and the space colonies put aside their differences and together founded a new world government. |
Crisis at X-18999
Relena Darlian, now vice foreign minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, is abducted during a diplomatic visit to the colony X-18999 at Lagrange point 3. Her captor is the sinister child Mariemaia Khushrenada, heir to the Barton Foundation's business empire and daughter of the late World Nation leader. Mariemaia plans to follow in her father's conquering footsteps, and hopes that the former Queen Relena will serve her as a propaganda tool.
Meanwhile, X-18999 and the Barton Foundation that controls it are attracting the attention of the former Gundam pilots. Trowa, visiting the colony with his traveling circus, stumbles upon the Barton Foundation's suspicious activities. Heero and Duo note Relena's disappearance and set out to investigate, dispatching Quatre to retrieve the sun-bound Gundams. And their former allies Lucrezia Noin and Sally Po, now agents of the government's Preventer intelligence agency, have deduced that X-18999 is the site of covert mobile suit manufacturing.
Declaration of War
Trowa already knows who is behind Mariemaia's planned rebellion - her scheming grandfather Dekim, patriarch of the Barton Foundation. Though Dekim helped plan Operation Meteor, in which the space colonies struck back against the tyrannical Alliance by dispatching five Gundams to wreak havoc on Earth, his goal was to seize power rather than to avenge the oppressed colonists. Now Trowa attempts to assassinate Dekim and stop his latest scheme, but his attack is foiled by an unexpected enemy... the fifth Gundam pilot, Chang Wufei.
In a flashback, we discover that Dekim Barton intended to exploit Operation Meteor to place his own family in control of Earth. His son Trowa was to pilot one of the Gundams, and his granddaughter Mariemaia would one day inherit the reins of power. Realizing this, the other rebels slew the real Trowa Barton, and a nameless underling assumed his name and replaced him as a Gundam pilot. This impostor is the youth we know today as Trowa.
Heero and Duo arrive at X-18999, fighting their way past the colony's defenses with some help from Noin and Sally, only to be intercepted by both Wufei and an apparently-traitorous Trowa. Their hijacked mobile suits destroyed, Heero and Duo escape into the colony's interior on foot. Meanwhile, Mariemaia issues her declaration of war against the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. Listening to Mariemaia's words with dread, Preventer chief Lady Une then receives an unexpected visitor - Zechs Merquise, who has returned from oblivion to sign up as a Preventer agent.
Operation Meteor
At X-18999, Heero and Duo watch as Mariemaia and Relena depart the colony. Meanwhile, at the asteroid MO-III in Earth orbit, Dekim readies his mobile suit legions for a full-scale planetary invasion. Suddenly, a lone mobile suit appears, piloted by none other than Zechs. Armed with a devastating mega cannon, Zechs targets MO-III and prepares to destroy it, but Dekim counters by threatening to carry out the true Operation Meteor and drop X-18999 onto Earth.
Now, almost two years later, the true scope of Operation Meteor is revealed. The original intention was to bombard Earth with falling space colonies, then use the Gundams to seize control of the ravaged planet. Rejecting this genocidal scheme, the five Gundam pilots absconded with their mobile suits to wage a more traditional guerilla war against the Alliance.
At X-18999, Heero, Duo, and Trowa team up to disable the colony drop program, while Sally frees Trowa's circus troop and the other civilian hostages. With Dekim's threat nullified, Zechs is at last free to destroy MO-III, but it's too late. Dekim has held him at bay long enough to launch all of his forces, and Mariemaia's armies are even now descending onto the government capital in Brussels.
The Occupation of Brussels
Through a dangerous and difficult maneuver, Quatre has managed to turn around the sun-bound asteroid and bring the Gundams back to Earth. Heero retrieves his Wing Gundam Zero and then confronts Wufei, whose bitterness at being a leftover warrior in a world without war has led him to side with Mariemaia. The two Gundams battle their way through reentry, until Heero, tired of the endless fighting, breaks off the fight and plunges into the sea.
Meanwhile, Mariemaia's mobile suits have seized control of Brussels, and she, Dekim, and Relena retreat to a fortified bunker. Zechs and Noin take on the hundreds of enemy mobile suits, but even when Duo, Trowa, and Quatre appear with their Gundams, our valiant heroes find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Mariemaia and Dekim prod Relena to ask the defenders to lay down their arms, but she instead exhorts the civilian population to rise up and struggle for peace themselves. And then, above the bunker, Heero's battered Wing Gundam Zero appears...
The Bunker Falls
Again and again, Heero fires on the bunker, until at last its barrier is broken. As his last shot strikes home, Lady Une dashes into the bunker's control room and shoves Relena and Mariemaia out of harm's way. Outside, the tide of battle has turned; Wufei has relented and rejoined his comrades, and the people themselves, responding to Relena's challenge, march en masse to the shattered bunker to stand up for the cause of peace.
Dekim calls Mariemaia to his side, but Relena stops the child and tries to reason with her. Dekim shoots at the meddling Relena, but it's Mariemaia who takes the bullet, whereupon the villainous Dekim is promptly plugged by one of his own underlings. Heero staggers into the ruined bunker and pulls a gun on the wounded Mariemaia; finding his gun empty, he sighs that he doesn't have to kill anyone anymore, and passes out himself.
Conclusion
Mariemaia's soldiers surrender, and their weapons and uniforms are burned. In turn, the Gundam pilots self-destruct their own mobile suits. At last true peace is at hand, because the people have seized it for themselves rather than allowing others to fight their battles and decide their fates for them.
What of our heroes? Lady Une takes the recovering Mariemaia to visit Treize's grave. Wufei and Zechs join the Preventer intelligence agency, working side by side with Noin and Sally to keep the peace. Duo returns to his salvage business, Trowa rejoins his circus, and Quatre helps complete the construction of the X-18999 colony. Relena resumes her state functions. And Heero vanishes into the crowd until he is needed again...