Crummy Letter (Part 1)

A Secret Old Military Base

"When it's all done, they'll all get it. They'll all understand." The leader Crystalia looked toward her other members. "Every one of them will understand."

"Crystalia?" One of her subjects asked aloud. "Some of them are too close to the targets. Word is, Duo Maxwell already knows. He didn't drop her like everyone assumed would happen. He even came to Earth. She will be watched extra close. What will we do?"

"We stick with the plan," Crystalia said. "He'll break."

"I can understand . . ." One of the women in the group started to speak up. That woman was called Jewel. A codename, no one used their real names. She had been the one to take part in the event of Hilde Schbeiker. Her purpose, she had known it. Understood it. She wanted it, but Jewel had found out that the ones being used in the plan had not even taken a single life. Three of the women in the plan? Hilde was responsible for things, yes, she killed and committed atrocities. Middie Une was the worse, she was a known spy, getting others who had trusted her killed. Those were good individuals to use, but three out of five? "This is about justice, Crystalia," she said. "Why are we picking three innocent women?"

"Dorothy Catalonia instigated war. She loved war, it's a known fact she was working with Zechs Merquise when he wanted to destroy the Earth," Crystalia said. "If she had a chance to see war or be in it, she would have taken a life without qualms. Even her descendents, it was destiny she would be a bad person."

That wasn't a strong enough reason. "Mei-Lin Wang?"

" . . ."

"Her situation, and her close name. Is that really it?" That wasn't good enough. "Who added the death of someone too? That wasn't us, was it?"

"In order to get things done, we've had to ally with another group," Crystalia was slower in the explaining. "Their presence have influenced some mechanics, but the message is still the same."

"An innocent man is dead, she is being hunted for that, how is that the same message?" Jewel pushed on. "This group has lost its way choosing these women. There was no reason, and the former Queen of Earth?"

Crystalia smirked at her. She smirked? "She is a good leader, who has always been there for everyone. She wants to make everyone happy, and make up for everything that she can. Call her a sacrificial lamb, she'll willingly do it."

"That's not fair," Jewel continued to yell. "These choices, they are by the other group! Who is influencing our group?"

Crystalia walked closer to her. "Honestly? When I said we had to ally with another group? I was talking to the group, not you. You are part of the other small group."

What? More than Jewel started to complain.

"Easy, ladies," Crystalia tried to calm them down. "Every single one of you could be implicated right now in all of this." She looked straight at Jewel. "One phone call and Duo Maxwell would be at your door, ready to murder you and everything you hold dear."

Everyone started to go stark quiet. "Used," Jewel whispered. "We were used."

"The world is about being used. The world is about a lot of pain. It's time for the ones who brought this suffering into the world, to bear that pain." Crystalia looked toward the crowd. "Our groups are similar. Not exactly the same, no, but the mission hasn't changed. The man who died? Deserved death. Classified reasons and Mei-Lin will be freed of those charges. She'll be fine." Crystallia pointed at Jewel. "Do you want to destroy all of the work we've all pushed together for?"

"For the lives of . . . three innocents." Jewel stared at Crystalia.

"The rewards are still the same, and it's not like the Mei-Lin woman was well liked."

"Not well-liked, enjoyed war, and sacrificial lamb is not what I signed up for!" Jewel declared. "This was not my group's purpose!" This was not her group. Her group was small. Simple. This meeting, there were thousands of women there.

"Women involved in the war, in all ways, were involved in this. If you expected everything to be absolutely peaceful, it's you who needs to check back into reality," Crystalia reminded her. "So the last three weren't that bad. They were involved. They weren't on the side lines. No." She had to correct herself. "Well? Mei-Lin Wang was an exception, but not many would fit."

"It wasn't about how any fit. Really. Was it?" Jewel looked around again. Only a few confused faces, most seemed to be quite aware of it.

"How they fit was just as important to our group as to how guilty they were, if not more so," Crystalia answered again. "Now? Unless we need to accidentally send some video to the temporary address of one Duo Maxwell, I suggest you sit back and relax. You are still getting your reward, as long as you stay allegiant." She looked toward the crowd. "Anyone else in the smaller group? You've all done something. Not one person here can walk away with only a small slap on the wrist. We all have our lives, and our own goals. We work with each other, and at the end, you get your rewards. Fair and square."

She couldn't do that. Jewel couldn't disobey, The God of Death would come after her with a passion. Her and everyone she had left. Again. No. "Why use us?" Her group had been so small and intimate. Why bother at all?

"Technology isn't always an easy thing to get to." Crystalia turned away and spoke to the crowd at large again.

This wasn't what Jewel had stood for, but it was what she had caused. Created. She was staying quiet while three innocent women suffered. One even being jailed and framed, simply because of her relative positioning to the former Meilan wife. How did all of the others fit then? Were they going after the guilty, or just the ones that had fit the best as counterparts to ruining the former gundam pilots? Were any of them as guilty as she had been led to believe? After all.

Now Jewel had heavy guilt on her, weighing her down. Her silence would let a killer go free. She was guilty.

She was guilty. No better than the one she hurt.

Guilty.

She didn't deserve anything.

Guilty.