We start with Kathy waxing philosophical about "duty" and "war" and shit and blah blah blah for ONE paragraph, then we dive right into TREIZE FILE FOUR (am i totally stupid cause I totally thought there were only supposed to be three Treize files...)
Anyway, after Artemis gets her ass royally kicked by Treize in chapter 3, Odin Lowe is sent to rescue her. He does this by causing one power outage during which he sneaks in a getaway ship, helps her, and causes another power outage for her to get away. He stays behind. While he's doing that, Zechs and Elve are hauling all 25 Greifs (Greif is how Sumizawa-sensei spells it) to wherever they're supposed to go (uh, turns out it's the Bulge mentioned below). Turns out Elve knows Zechs is Milliardo Peacecraft and there is DRAMA! on the ship. While engaged in their little pissing contest, Artemis rocks up an hijacks their ship and all 25 Greif suits.
All this is occurring at or near a place called the Bulge (can't find the place where they describe what that is, but it's apparently a livable area in space but most likely a lot smaller than a colony). At the Bulge, Seis is having a hissy fit that the Leos are out and the Greifs are in (which, thinking about it, is kind of odd since they still remind us in the text that the Greif is the Leo IV... but whatever!) and after busting up Heero's toy Leo ("I did NOT design a *toy*!!!") tells Aoi and Heero GTFO!! Heero asks Aoi if she loves him, she says she loves Seis as much as she loves Heero. Heero doesn't cry (of course). In Seis's rage, he contacts someone (Dekim?) at the Barton Foundation and asks them to blow up a shuttle. Dekim then tells Kairns to steal the Greifs before they arrive at the Bulge.
This is where the first two parts of the story meet up, yus?
Zechs and Elve disappear, they're assumed dead. So with the destruction of the Marius Plant, their losing the first Lunar war (must be Liddle-Hart's), and the hijacking of the Greifs, the Alliance isn't looking too good. So bad, in fact, that Treize doesn't appear in their documents for two and a half years. (er, the most recent blow occurred in Autumn AC 186) and right after the tell us Treize disappears for two years, we are told that he goes trundling off to look for his missing cadets and Van urges him to return in time for the opening ceremony of the Bulge (so I guess it's AFTER this that he actually goes missing. TWT?!)
So the Bulge. Funded for by the colonies to serve... who knows what purpose, but it was everyone's cross to bear in bringing it to completion. It caused riots and hunger and starvation in the colonies and made every suffer under desperate living conditions and turned them all into soldiers (it was more poetic in Japanese...)
Back to Seis and Aoi who are still on speaking terms I guess. They're debating whether or not they're going to attend the Bulge's opening ceremony. Seis says he doesn't want to. Aoi takes Heero. She tell Heero he should have left his beat up toy Leo behind but Heero says he represents Seis. Aoi says SHE doesn't to attend, so she gives Heero a blue origami crane (that, oh by the by, has a microchip containing the GUNDAM WING ZERO PLANS IN IT) and tells him it's supposed to represent HER and she goes off to find Seis. (hey, did anyone else know Heero Yuy had ANOTHER code name? it's "Red One".... wtf is that all about?)
For the ceremony, Chilia and Van and Dorothy are also in attendance, hanging out in the control room, waiting for Treize to come back (Van made Treize PROMISE he would return for the Bulge's opening ceremony). And Heero strolls on by and strikes up a freaking conversation with Van (well, Van starts is by asking Heero if he's holding a Leo) And Heero seems to have NO PROBLEMS shooting the breeze with him! Van knows he's Aoi and Seis's son and they talk about war.
H: is the war really over?
V: Sure kiddo!
H: I don't think it is.
V: WTF, don't you want peace?
H: yup, but the war still ain't over.
V: So you wanna fight.
H: nope.
V: Well, no one does... so, the war is over.
H: you can't just run away.
You know, more or less. And they SHAKE HANDS. Let me google something... well, apparently the Boy Scouts in SWITZERLAND shake hands as they give the half-salute (which I guess is the two-finger version as opposed to the three-finger one). How esoteric. Except that I guess it's supposed to mean that Van and Heero are, like, neutral. Like Bella Swan! Oh, the best laid plans...
Okay, so Van and Heero do the secret scout handshake (and Sumizawa TELLS us it's a boy scout thing), apparently this was all a ruse to get the Origami crane to Van becuase Van takes it. And Heero leaves, getting a shoulder check from Dorothy who was returning from an outing and they tell each other to watch what they're doing. Then, he tosses away his Leo.
The dudes with Van discuss how to fund making the Mobile Suits and we're left with the impression the Alliance is totally okay with the colonies footing the bill. Meanwhile, Artemis busts out the Greifs. She even had TIME TO PAINT BLACK (which is fine, but... where do you get the blooming SUPPLIES to paint a FLEET OF MSes BLACK?!) and goes off to attack the Bulge with her newly acquired and freshly repainted Schwartz Greifs. Suddenly under attack, Aoi goes back to the reception room where Heero was supposed to be waiting. He's not there, so she goes looking for him. We get epic description of her desperate searching and just how hard-body Aoi is. Elsewhere, Seis also worries for his wife and step-son and feels guilty about having left them high-and-dry (emotionally, I guess) and HE goes back to look for them also.
As luck would have it, a guard dude on a motor bike pops by Seis and offers to take him to the reception room. Little did Seis know it was actually ODIN LOWE! They zip off together to see if they can't find their son and wife. And, lo, the see Heero JUST before he gets clobbered by a falling fiery pillar. SAFE! The, naturally, turn around to check out the carnage and see Aoi get squished beneath the pillar instead. RATS! She was smiling because Heero was safe. Seis askes Odin (Seis doesn't know it's Odin, he just thinks its a guard dude) so he can run off and jump into a Chimera to fight off the Greifs. He DID design the Leo after all... should know how to handle a few Greifs. He gets blowed up pretty quick. And THAT'S how Heero ended up with Odin.
So stuff is blowing up. Artemis is having a great time and then, Treize Kushrenada comes out of literally NOWHERE and surprises her from behind. Challenges her to a duel, which she refuses, and Treize makes Van aim all the Bulge's guns at HIM in an effort to get rid of Artemis. Van very reluctantly (with tears in his eyes, even) does so. But at the very last second, the remains of Treize's Mogadishu team ferry him to safety as Artemis gives her fellow Greifs the order to GTFO and calamity strikes: the Bulge guns miss Treize but end up incinerating some 20 of Artemis's Schwartz Greifs. Van feels bad about it.
One year later during Summer 187...
Zechs and Elve are still MIA. Odin has been taking Heero around and showing him how to be a good little terrorist. Taught him everything he know EXCEPT that he was Heero's actual father. They end up on L-1 in the medical section. Heero discovers that he hasn't lost everything (recall Aoi "had" Seis, Seis "had" the Leo, Heero "had" the toy Leo but that got busted up and discarded) he has his LIFE, which, incidentally, he must be ready to sacrifice at any time, according to Odin's teachings. BUT if you CAN find a way out of a tight spot, by all means do it. That's his ethos, I guess.
Anyway, Odin's been contracted to bump old Van off the face of the earth. Odin has some serious misgivings. Unlike the original Heero Yuy, killing Van wouldn't have a big impact on the state of things. But, what the hell. They hit the hospital where Angelina is staying as that is the only place Van goes without a gaggle of guards. They set up shop and wait for the shoot. Meanwhile, Treize is off busting someone else's balls. Odin is lining up the shot, noting that there is a MALE nurse in Angelina's room and Odin't intel told him she would have FEMALE nurses only. Heero goes to check it out. And as Van is arranging flowers in a vase for his mother (who, by the way, HAS TOTALLY FORGOTTEN HE EXISTS), he gets blown away. But the bullet over shoots and, BONUS, Angelina bites it, too. Odin gets a call, it's Heero. They meet up on an emergency stair well to talk shop? Heero tells Odin he waited too long to shoot, if he had been quicker, he wouldn't have hit Angelina also (honestly, though, you're putting her and everyone else out of a lot of misery heero).
So they gives Treize a call and tells him his mother and brother bit the dust. He leaves the battle field without collecting his dead (which he never did prior, apparently) and mourns. The dude (edit) wails in anguish but does not cry. And that was what caused him to not "memorize" the names of the falled but to "etch them into his heart."
And we're back to MC-0022 Next Winter.
Kathy reminds us of Treize's poem about running: it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. And suddenly, Doktor T is on the line! He tells us that Winner's daughter has stolen Prometheus. Chang overhears and flips his lid (at which he is very skilled) and Quatre busts into the picture to, what else, apologize.
HERE'S SOMETHING INTERESTING... the three of them talk about repsonsiblity and what not and Wufei (I think) asks if Quatre could really KILL HIS LITTLE SISTER (did he HAVE a little sister?!). Quatres all like "Well, if we must, we must!"
So Mini!Duo Maxwell tells Heero it's time to saddle up. He asks where his Snow White is and Priest!Duo tells him it's hanging out with Heero's Warlock. Kathy wants in on the action, too but nooooo. She isn't done looking at the files. She's still gotta get through ZECHS AND RELENA (translator note: finding out what happens in the present day is one biiig carrot.)
Turns out Relena WAS frozen, but had been awakened at some undefined point in the past and RAN AMOK! Priest!Duo says that the relena they "ran around with as kids" was much better than the most recent incarnation. Why?! Guess we'll have to wait until we delve into the Zechs/Relena files. They were the files that were supposedly given to Relena when she was brought out of hibernation.
And, personally, I wanted to punch sumizawa-sensei in the ovaries when I read the last line, as said by Priest!Duo, after dropping all those bombs:
Well, aren't you just burning to find out what happens?